Finding a Home
by Stricker014
Summary: Her Army shattered in a trap and none she knows alive beside Bristle, Sejuani leaves the Freljord and gives up on the throne. She starts a journey to find herself, her goals and new people to care about. -Note: More champions will appear during the story, rated M for violence and adult themes
1. Chapter 1

Sejuani opened her eyes and choked the snow out of her mouth. A gentle touch on her head followed by a grunt had awoken her. She looked up and saw the face of her trusted mount, Bristle. She tried to push herself up which was more taxing than she thought. She was half burried in snow and the lower part of her body felt like it was a block of ice. After she got on her feet she took her flail and started to take a look around her. The memories returned to her.

 _The campfires of the Winters Claw were lighting the sky and Sejuani was just about to go to sleep. Tomorrow would be an important day and she didn´t want to sleep in. As she entered her tent she heard a loud detonation outside. As she tourned around a blue light was fading from a small mountain and a part of it was set in motion down right into the direction of her tribe."Avalanche!" she yelled while starting to run to the stables. The whole camp, which had been rather peaceful for the night, was in uproar in a single instant. She found Bristle asleept and shock him awake. "Come on boy we need to get moving!" she pressed as she climbed his back. But it was too late, the masses of snow had already reached the center of the camp. Before her mount could move out of the danger, masses of snow crashed down at them and Sejuani´s vision went black.  
_

The former camp of the Winters Claw was now only a plain of snow, ice and scatered supplies with many of her men laying dead in the snow. She wasn´t really shocked, after all she was used to the view of destruction and death, but it hurt nontheless. She had camped with her tribe below a small mountain about two miles from the Avarosan position. They had ventured far into the south of the Freljord to meet her rival. Only the mountain range seperated the Freljord from the wilderness that was the bufferzone between them and Demacia. Ashe wanted to negotiate an armistice with her to take care of Lissandra. Sejuani didn´t really mind the idea as she did not trust the Ice-witch further than she could throw Bristle, nor did she trust Ashe, but leading her into a trap and slauthering the whole Winter Claw was not something the Frostarcher would do. Or so she had thought, the view before her showed the opposite. The Avalanche even seemed to have burried parts of the Avarosan camp which had been at least three times as tall as her own. After all it consisted not only of soldiers and fighters but also craftsman, families and elders.

After wandering around what had once been her 'Army' she fell on her knees. Not a single one of her tribesman seemed to have survied the calamity. She had lost the war for the Freljord before it even had begun. It was now either Ashe or Lissandra who was to rule over it. There was no goal or purpose for her to pursue. She could join Ashe in her cause to unite the Land since the thought of Lissandra as the queen of her homeland disgusted her. Obviously the Averosan were weaker and would not make a nation as strong as Sejuani had desired, but she knew the Frost-Archer would make an acceptable queen compared to her Frostguard counterpart. She stood up and burried her face in the fur of Bristle thinking about what to do next and felt a feeling she had not felt for a long time: Sadness.

The last time she remembered was when her tribe was subjugated and her parents died, although she only rememberes fractions of it:

 _The Air was filled with smoke as Sejuani came back from hunting deer with some of her companians. As they got on top of the hill they saw most of their village in flames and corpses laying in the snow at the camps center. She hurried down through the shattered gates of her home in search of her parents. It looked like there had been heavy fighting. Dead invaders and defenders alike lay on the ground in blood, some of them in their last death throes. Before the chief´s hut some of the people of her tribe were hold captive by a horde of barbarians._

 _"Looks like our spoils have arrived!" the supposed leader exclaimed. His men followed with a loud shout, raising their bloodstained weapons in the process.  
_

 _"Listen now you cowards, if you surrender your young ones to our tribe we keep you living for another decade or so. Our own are rather dead because we don´t have the patience to raise little babies while raiding!" he continued._

 _A tall man, Sejuani recognized him as her father, stood up and walked up the the raider. He was a strong man willing to do anything to protect his people and his plan. She had always admired him for that and she was sure that he would save them right now too.  
_

 _"I´d rather die than give my daughter to you!" he said in a sharp voice. 'Yes!' Sejuani thought. 'He will save us all!'  
_

 _"If you wish so." The leader replied emotionless. In one swift strike he parted head and body of Sejuani´s father. It all went so fast that he could´t even react. In that single instant Sejuani´s world had fallen apart.  
_

 _Without thinking she charged the man with her hunting dagger in her hand. But he effortlessly doged her attack and rammed his fist into her stomach. Sejuani chocked and broke down. She let out a loud scream, tears falling down her cheeks uncontrolled. Her father was the only person she ever had really cared for since her mother died when she was born. She refused to accept that he was dead, but a hit on her cheek reminded her of reality. She looked up, drenched in tears, into the eyes of the furious barabrian leader.  
_

 _"The weak are the only ones who cry" he said in a stern voice, "and weakness leads only to more loss and death. So don´t be weak like your father was." Without another word he cleaned the blood of his blade and signaled his warriors to retreat with their bounty.  
_

After that her vision of the past blurred, he took her to his tribe and trained her to be the woman she was today. Today Sejuani felt no anger for this man. After all he had showed her how to be strong and not lose things she did not want to lose. She had taken over the clan when she killed him in duel, but not out of revenge. He was just too weak to lead the tribe any further. But now all she wanted to protect and fight for was gone, in one instance.

She turned towards where she suspected the rest of the Avarosan encampement to be and started walking towards it with her boar by her side. She spotted a man approximatly 30 meters in the distance. She couldn´t see who he was, the snow just took to much of her vision. Hope blossomed in her heart, maybe she had not lost everything today. Ten more steps and her hope was crushed. The outline of the man was no other than a Avarosan warrior. But it was not just a normal warrior, it was the Barbarian King, Tryndamere, husband of Ashe. While Sejuani had never met the Frost-Archer in person she had already met the furious warrior Tryndamere. He was much taller than Sejuani herself and packed with muscles. In one hand he had his giant sword, almost bigger than the blonde woman. She had heard tales of him killing about 50 men alone without any help at all. And while he did look impressive Sejuani never believed quite them.

As he approached he grinned with a trace of madness in his eyes. "Look who we have here, the cause of the desaster.", he said with a stain of blood on his face. The Avalanche must have hit the Avarosan harder than Sejuani had anticipated.

"Your not standing before the culprit." Sejuani answered calmly. She really needed to sooth the situation if she wanted to join the Avarosan. On the other hand she didn´t even know if Ashe would accept.

"Why should I believe any of your words? All you have ever done was threatening my Queen and her people!" He retorted. His voice indicated he was not intenting to negotiate.

"Why should I destroy my own clan." she interupted him.

"I just think your plan failed." he continued determined."You Winters Claw don´t care about colateral damage and thought you could wipe us out with your pretty little plan. Too bad it didn´t work and backfired on you. But I will make sure nothing is left of you and your wretched clan!" he almost shouted, and started charging at her with his giant sword.

This man was obviously not to be reasoned with in his current state. She griped the handle on her flail and prepared for a fight. She was not someone who avoided fighting but this was just stupid. "Bristle, attack!" she shouted and saw her huge mount crashing down at the barbarian. One of the tusks of the beast hit Tryndamere right in the stomach, but he just pushed the beast aside with his sword and conitued to charge her. Sejuani was surprised, the boar was at least three to four times heavier than Tryndamere but it looked like it took him no effort at all to repell the attack.

Sejuani swung her flail around the giant sword as he tried to swing at her. She pulled with one hand tearing the blade from Tryndamere´s hands. It took her less effort than anticipated, probably because he was already in full swing and couldn´t control the moment anymore. With her free hand she reached for her blade on her side. She always hat one ready but as she fought almost all of her battles on top of Bristle she barely ever used it. She reached out and drove the blade right into the heart of the Barbarian king. He looked surprised at first and stumbled a few steps back, but the surpirse soon gave way to anger and rage in his face. He grabbed the blade still in his chest and pulled it out. Sejuani was confused and also scared. She stood frozen in place.

 _'What the fuck...I drove the balde right through his heart...is this man...a demon or what'_

"This is the end 'Fury of the North'! I see the fear in your eyes!" he screamed. His voice sounded otherwordly and his movements where only controled by pure fury. "You have never seen true demons, but I have! True Bloodshed does not end until one side lies dead on the ground in his own blood!"

He swung the blade through the air and let it come down on Sejuani´s head. Barely she moved her head to dodge the weapon. It crashed one of the horns on her helmet and Sejuani was shaken by the impact. She heard a crackling sound and then felt the blade carve into her shoulder. She faltered backwards hitting the ground.

 _'Looks like this is it.'_ Sejuani thought to herself and grited her teeth. She almost started to laugh at herself. The first enemy she met would kill her although she was considered one of the best fighters in Freljord.

The man towered above her and prepared for the finishing blow when he was suddenly overwhelmed by a giant boar. Bristle just stomped on the back of her adversary and this time he could not recover. His back was shattered and one of his arms was bent unnatural twist. Bristle nuged Sejuani with his nose not sure if her owner was even alive at this point. Sejunai herself wasn´t that certain how she just survived that. She forced herself up and collected her weapons and the horn he had broken from her helmet. They were always more of a decoration than for parctical use, but without them she would be dead by now.

She now could not join the Avarosan even if she wanted. Not after she killed Tryndamere, even tough she wasn´t really sure if he was really dead at this point. Afterall he had taken a blade to the heart and still fought after that, she had never seen something like this. She swung herself ontop of her mount with one last push of fortitude. The wound on her shoulder didn´t go that deep but it bled like hell. Reaching into one of her saddlebags she fetched a bandage and started to cover up the cut. Not really happy with the result Sejuani put them back and breathed heavily. She just wanted to get away from here. She could think about what to do when she was safe and had healed from her injuries.

"Bristle, get us out of this shithole. Out of the Freljord." The Boar grunted in confusion."No, I dont know if I want to ever return to this place" she muttered. 'I dont even know if i wanted to survive this day' she thought to herself before fainting on the back of her furry companion as he started moving.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hello there! It´s me, the author, yay!**_

 _ **First of all thanks for reading my story. I just decided to try this stuff out, so I´m pretty new to all this. I don´t know how often I´ll be able to update this story but I will try to keep it weekly or so. I can´t promise anything though as I have other things to do like University. Maybe you could already tell by some mistake but english is not my native language(or just looked at my profile). I try to keep as little mistakes as possible in the text but there will be some.**_

 _ **As for the story, nothing, including possible pairing, is set in stone yet. I already thought about many champions I could incorperate into the story as either main or sidecharcters. Sorry if i´m disapointing some of you but I just have not yet decided. There will be no major OC though. As of now only Sejuani and Quinn are sure to play a crucial role in the story. But now I have kept you long enough, here is the second chapter! Feel free give me some feedback/suggestions :)**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

* * *

In the following hours Sejuani was only partially conscious. A snow strom started to gather as the lone traverlers reached the first trees and the beginning of the so called 'bufferzone'. In reality it wasn´t that different from the Freljord, even less people lived and a lot more trees grew there. The air grow colder and Sejuani had difficulty even looking up from her boar. Not that she really cared, the only thing she wanted was to get out of the cold and out of the Freljord.

She had been outside one time and that was with her father when she was just about seven years old. It was just before the raid to her hometown happened. They were trading supplies for her tribe which could not be produced in Freljord like salt, pepper and other spices. They were not really prominent in Freljordian food but still appreciated. But that time they had sailed from a northern harbour to a trading post from shurima on an island. Sejuani could still remember the warmth of the sun that was never really present in the Freljord.

As more trees passed by Sejuani couldn´t hold on to the saddle anymore, the injury in her shoulder made it not really easier and she noticed Bristle growing tired as well. ' _We´ll have to rest soon'_ she thought to herself. Under pain she got up straight in the saddle and looked for a place to stay the night, that was quickly approaching. After what seemed like an eternity she believed to have found a place that was suitable. A large rock flanked by two smaler ones and some trees nearby.

"Easy Bristle, we take rest here." Sejuani said while pointing to the boulders. The boar took a turn and slowed down in front of the camp location. She sliped down from the giant mount and began searching the saddlebags for food, wood and some furs. She groaned with every other step, as the pain became more intense. She had been lucky, it had been a pretty clean cut but it still hurt and the wound itselft had not fully closed yet. Satisfied with some dried meat Sejuani began setting up a camp fire. Using her firestone a small flame was quickly lit up. When she had been a bit younger she had spent a lot of time away from her clan. She may have been the leader, but she always had her own plans and camping in the cold had made her stronger and less reliant on others. After about five minutes she sat beside her companion and took a bite of her meager meal. The warmth of the fire started to flow through her and the pain in her shoulder let up slowly. But Bristle grunted annoyed.

"I know." Sejuani answered displeased. "I try to get you something to eat soon enough, just let me get some rest."

After swallowing the rest of the meat she lied down against Bristle´s body, covering herself with the furs she took earlier. But sleep was not soon to come and she felt the pain of her wound throbing again. Images of the plain full of corpses flashed her memory. Could she have avoided what had happened? Why would Ashe even do something like this? But as she grew more tired she came to the realization that it likely wasn´t even Ashe´s plot. Although she despised the woman and her ideals she would never sacrifice innocent people for her own good. It must have been Lissandras plan, not that it really mattered anymore. She dug her own grave in the Freljord the moment she killed Tryndamere. Atleast she thought she killed him. But judging from what she had seen earlier he just did not want to die. Trailing off in her thought she slowly fell into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

When Sejuani awoke a thin layer of snow had fallen on the furs she was covered in and her bones felt like being dragged down by iron bars. It had only been about four hours off rest and Sejuani was still exhausted but she couldn´t bring herself to go to sleep once more. Quickly shaking off the unwanted dead weight she stood up and glanced around. She spotted some pine cones below a tree about ten meters from her. She didn´t know if Bristle would like them but he almost ate everything. She marched over and took a closer look. Suddenly she felt a sting in her neck.

"I wouldn´t move if I were you Notherner." A calm femine voice said behind her back. The fact that she had not noticed being watched or even followed unsettled her. Sejuani was not in the mood to fight off a stranger. Additionally her wound still hurt and she didn´t know if she was even capable of fighting right now. The ambusher did not seem like a pursuer from the Freljord, her accent and her wording suggested otherwise.

"I do not wish to fight you but I will defend myself if I must." Sejuani said unflinching. She tensed her muscles prepared for a fight.

"If it is as you say put your hands where I can see them." The woman answered calmly. She knew she had full control over the situation and Sejuani´s attempt to intimidate her had accomplished nothing.

"I´m afraid I won´t follow your wish. I´ll never surrender to strangers sneaking up behind my back." The Freljordian knew she was testing out the boundries right now and that her life could end at this very moment. But she still didn´t want to back down.

"It would be wise for you to do so or your life will end now." Sejuani felt the biting in her neck getting stronger. It barely pierced through her skin and she felt a small drop of blood trailing down her back.

"I don´t have much to live for anyway. But my friend over there will be quite unhappy with the result." Sejuani stated while pointing her head to the direction of Bristle. This was the ace up her sleeve, Sejuani could always present Bristle as a wild unstopable beast, although he only killed when Sejuani commanded it.

"I have no fear of wild animals or beasts. But I supposed I could do with talking for the moment." It had worked, the stinging in her neck stopped and Sejuani slowly turned around. Before her stood a young woman, definitely attaractive, with a serious look on her face. She had short brown hair and an interesting looking crossbow in her hands. Her armor looked very worn out with one of her shoulderpads half broken and a part of her chest armor missing. "Name´s Quinn, I´ve been searching for a Northener like you. But since you dont seem to know me or my companion it seem that I´ve got the wrong person."

"I´m not keen to die for a missunderstanding." Sejuani answered a bit playfully. She didn´t really know why but this woman did not strike her as hostile. If it turned out bad she assumed to have little trouble defeating her as long as she avoided the crossbowbolt.

"The thing is, she tried to kidnap my partner. Said it was for his future Queen or something."

Sejuani was pretty surprised at that statement."Don´t really know which one she meant when there is still a full blown war going on in the Freljord right now. Besides slaves are pretty uncommon up in the north."

"My partner is up there." Quinn said a bit annoyed at the lack of seriousness. She pointed up. Sejuani followed her wink and saw a magestic blue Eagle sitting on one of the branches. Like on command Quinn´s companion let out a load screech. Sejuani had never seen a creature like this before, it was much larger than the birds from the Freljord. "She said wanted to join the Winters Claw when I met her. She followed me and tried to abduct Valor while we were sleeping. Little did she know eagles are easy to wake up. Unforntunatly I couldn´t drive a bolt between her eyes, she barely ecaped."

Sejuani smirked, this was gonna get interesting. "Well pleased to meet you. I´m Sejuani, former leader of the Winters Claw. Now a traveler without a real destination." She held her hand towards Quinn, who looked puzzeled for a moment.

"You´re either really good at lying or my senses betray me." she said eyeing Sejuani suspiciously. Nontheless she returned the gesture and shook the former Warchiefs hand. She still seemed cautious but the Freljordian felt as though she had avoided a conflict.

"Your choice to find out. But don´t take too much time as I´m about to set off."

"Where your heading for now? Your shoulder looks like it could use some mending." Quinn said hesitantly. Of course she had noticed the bandages which Sejuani had hasitly put arround the wound.

"I´ve had worse." She just answered. It was true, she had had worse injuries, but it wasn´t as harmless as she tried to make it seem. "As for my destination, I don´t really know to be honest. There are quite a lot of things I have lost. My goals and ambitions were among them. For the moment just south." Sejuani answered with a more serious face. She really had no idea what to do next. She had never ventured out the Freljord by herself before.

"If you continue on south you will eventually reach the town of Fellton. You should know Freljordians are not exactly welcome there due to the ongoing war and frequent raidings. If you are telling the truth about who you are, I recommend not going there, as Demacia is more willing to support the Avarosans."

"Thought as much, but thanks for the tip anyway."

"Well good luck to you then. Whoever you might really be. Shouldn´t really keep a stranger when I have no reason to. Besides, I have a Freljordian to kill." Quinn signaled her companion and he decended from the tree onto her shoulder.

"I suppose so. Good hunting to you and your feathered friend." Sejuani said while walking past her.

As she collected her things Sejuani watched the woman vanish in the woods, her bird still resting on her shoulder. Quinn had been quite interesting and Sejuani was sure she was not told the full story of why she was in these wastelands alone, only with an eagle at her side. After she finshed her preparations for her departure she swung herself on top of her mount. In the meantime Bristle had found some pine cones and was munching on them. "Another problem solved." Sejuani thought to herself and started to venture into the unkown wilderness before her.

* * *

Three days had passed since the unwanted yet interessting encounter with the stranger. The snow layer had slowly given way to a more green enviroment. Sejuani was surpried about the amount of animals she spoted. She had almost no problem trying to hunt something for herself and Bristle. The deer in this region wasn´t nearly as fast as in the far north. And if you missed one, you could a find another one pretty fast, without searching for hours like in the white wastelands. She also noticed the rise in the temperature as she started sweating in her fur-lined armor without much exertion. Another thing the snow revealed was a visible trail probably leading to the town Quinn had been talking about. She had warned her not to go there. Her ignorance of the Freljord however showed her that most people in Demacia would not know how the leader of the Winters Claw would even look like. Sejuani could just lie about her name, she doubted anyone would notice.

As for her plan of were to go, they had made little to no progress at all. Conquering was always the only thing she knew since she was taken in by the barbarian leader. The most reasonable thing to do was to enlist as a mercenary. Fighting for money was never a bad thing but Sejuani always wanted to be in charge of things and that could prove a little difficult. She had hated it when people of her tribe had questioned her decisions and had been quick to bring jugement to them.

The first marks of civilization showed as Sejuani saw a small watchtower in the distance and a palisade behind it. Clouds of smoke showed the signs of the town behind it. In the Freljord such settlements were rather uncommon as the lack of ressources did not allow most people to stay in one place. They pillaging tribes were another factor that made nonmoblie camps too great of a risk. Ashe´s Residency was a special exception. It had stone walls which were guarded by longbowmen and the garison was as large as Sejuanis army had been. Most sedentary tribes payed tribute to one of the larger pillaging tribes in the area. But the safety was temporary at best.

Closing in on the distance she noticed a guard, half asleept, below the tower armed with a spear and a great shield beside him. The shield showed the winged sword of Demacia. Sejuani was now officially entering Demacian territory. Hearing the noise of an approaching Freljordian boar the man shock up in alarm. He turned towards the exotic beast and her cavalier.

"Hey you! Stop right there!" he shouted with a glimpse of fear in his voice. He pointed the spear right at Bristle as if he had a chance of repelling a possible charge.

"Greetings to you. I come from the far north and am here for resupplying and spending the night." Sejuani answered in the most polite way she could. She already couldn´t stand that guy. At first he neglected his duty and now he was arrogant as fuck. Killing him was easy but was not worth the trouble she would face afterwards.

"Not many travelers cross through our town these days northman. The last one who visited us was a witch who tried to betrayed our weaponsmith and injured two guards when we took her captive. I would advise caution when staying here, espeacially with that animal of yours." He said with an suspicious undertone.

"My friend and I won´t cause you any trouble if you leave us be. Just tell me where I can buy supplies and a map of Demacia and it´s surroundings." God, this guy started to piss her off, she had not even done anything and yet she already felt sentenced for a dozen crimes she did not commit.

"Well then the innkeeper´s got you covered. Anyways 'welcome' to Fellton, the most nothern outpost before Fossbarrow. Just be sure to be on your way in the next two days." he replied the hostility in his voice almost filling the air.

"What will happen to the criminal?" Sejuani asked just out of curiosity. She had always heard Demacia would be a place of justice but also mercy.

"She is to be hanged tomorrow morning of course. This damned sorceress. It´s a good reminder to those who oppose us." He replied casually while pointing to the platform behind him. Sejuani had not noticed until now but there was a gibbet in the middle of it.

 _'A day of rest in a town which seems to thrive on witch hunts. This is gonna be a hell of fun'_ She thought to herself as she led Bristle past the guard and to the towns center.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Hey, it´s me again!**_

 _ **Finished this one just in time for the weekend. So i hope you can all have a good time reading this Chapter! Feedback is appreciated.**_

 _ **Enjoy**_

* * *

The Inn was not that crowded. Only one third of the tables were occupied. The Innkeeper was an small man in this fifties, busy cleaning the bar. He had short grey hair and a long beard. His face looked almost quadratic like it had been hammered to fit that specific form. He had more in common with an Freljordian compared other people in the town. He gave Sejuani a short dismissive look before turning back to cleaning the counter.

"Stopin in for a rest arent ya?" he said vacantly. "Not from´ere eh? Wouldn recommend stayin here for long if I wer ya. T´rooms are upstairs, four Silverswords pa day."

"I only pay in goldcoins." Sejuani said with a stern face.

"That´ll be six goldcoins for ya then." The accent that man possessed reminded her of the tribes in the south east of the Freljord.

"Running a Palace here I see." Sejuani said sharply. Six coins, that was an insane price, as she only had about 20 on hand right now. In a normal situation she would have had more than enough money to outright buy the whole town. But this was not a normal situation and the fact that she was a stranger here made things exponantially more expensive. She had already paid for two whole stable boxes since Bristle was just to big to fit into one of them. Together with some hey and food for her mount it had costed her three gold coins. Sejuani glanced arround and considered taking her chances and just made him lower his price through brute force. But It probably wouldn´t be worth the trouble as this town seemed to be xenophobic to say the least. The only thing she was gonna achieve with that was earing herself a spot alongside the supposed witch.

"I´ll pay five for it. A meal, an ale and a map in addition." Sejuani responded resolute.

"Thas not how things work ´ere miss. Eight coins is a reasonable price fo it."

'A reasonable price would be me smashing your head in' Sejuani thought annoyed. She hated bargaining especialy when she was taken for a fool. As a Warchief she had prefered just taking the things she needed by force.

"Six and you can keep the map."

"Gi´me seven and you got yourself a deal."

Sejuani slammed the coins on the counter. "Alright, but with the map included."

The barkeeper grunted in agreemend but seemed displeased with the outcome. He collected the money and turned toward the stove where a young woman, probably his daughter, was standing. "Jesse, a bowl of bean´n meat for the Freljordian ´ere." She looked up and noded.

"So, wha does a Northener like you bring into Demacia. Im pretty happy most of ya just keep bash their heads´n."

"Don´t really know, maybe the thirst for an adventure." This conversation was going on her nerves, weren´t there any decent human beings in this town!? "I just grew tired of the endless white and thought it was time for a change." It was not really a lie in that regard. She still had no idea what to do next or where to go.

"Ha, I bet. Still though yer lot causes much trouble for us, so did rather´ave ya stay were yer came from." Sejuani gave him a fierce look.

"I can imagine that. But enough about me the guard at the town gate said something about a prisoner that is to be executed. Do you know anything about it?"

"Can tell ya the´ohle story. After all I reported her to tha´watch. Was screaming in some god´full language. Was sure she´d be cursin me or somethin. We captured´er at the weaponsmiths forge. Gave two of our men a rl´hard time. Insisted she came from som island, Iona or somethin. Blantly lied to us when we accused ´er of magic. We saw´er moving her blades through the air."

Sejuani was amazed by this town, and not in a positive way. The discription that the man gave was interesting for sure and magic was frowned upon in Demacia. But the fanatism about it in this town was something else . Even her True-Ice Bola could have counted as magical in their eyes.

"Did she harm anyone before you took her to prision? I mean she could just be a foreigner."

"Nah, she hurt two of te´watchmen hard. Luckly didnt killem. She deserves the string n´nothin less." He took a mug out of the shelf behind him and filled it with brown liquid. Sejuani rememered the ale in Freljord to be much clearer. Shortly after a mug filled with the boze stood before her. "Cheers!" she said took a mouthful. The taste was stale and Sejuani had difficulty keeping the alcohol with her. This stuff was revolting, how could they drink something like this?

The innkeeper put the finished meal on the bar."Heres t´food. Room four should be free for ya. One thing tho, I need ya nam."

"Thanks, name´s Serylda. Maybe I´ll even join execution tomorrow." Sejuani stated. She stood up and took her dinner to a lone table in the corner of the tavern. "Do what ya want. Just be sure to not cause trouble." The man replied dry while putting down her name in his guestbook.

After taking the first bite of the soup it was clear that it was thinned with saw-dust. Still, she had paid for it so she just gobbled it down her throat. Her mentor had always said "It doesn´t matter what you eat as long as your stomach is full". With her hunger only partially sated and too disgusted by the ale to finish it she stood up and made her way to the room upstairs.

Sejuani threw herself on the bed. It had been ages since she had done that. Although her pleasure came at a hefty price. Additionally the people in this town pissed her off. She had never seen that kind of hostility towards strangers. She had tried to be as polite as possbile but was treated only with antipathy. Dispite all this she was just content laying on the bed and regaining her strength. It was the first time she could really rest without any real concerns since she left the Freljord.

Her thoughts trailed off the the people she had lost recently. Olaf a mighty warrior who had sought a glorious death in combat, he had found death that much was sure but it was not at all glorious. Udyr, the spiritwalker, who wanted to end the corruption inflicted by Lissandra. As wanted Volibear, the leader of the ursine tribe and one of the only one of her warriors she had truly trusted. Sejuani could not know they were dead for sure but it was highly likely as she had not seen a sinle living soul besides the madman who had called himself "King of the Freljord". She felt an emotion similar to the one when her father was killed and she was taken away. But she quickly pushed that emotion aside."Too many feelings for other people make you weak and unable to lead" her mentor had always told her. Ironically enough he was killed by Sejuani when he endangered the tribe for a woman he had loved.'What a damn hypocrite' Sejuani thought and slowly faded into a deep slumber.

* * *

 _"The troops are ready Chief." Volibear said while walking beside Sejuani. The huge Ursine was fully armored and had his enchanced claws of true ice equipped. He was one and a half times as tall as Sejuani herself with his strength rivaling Bristles. Dispite all of that he was one of the more intelligent and collected generals she had. Without him countless battle would have ended with far more casulties._

 _"Tell them to rest up" Sejuani resplied "we are not here to fight the Avarosan, at least not yet."_

 _"You really think negotiations are possible? We could just crush Ashe and her tribe on the spot." he argued confidently. "The faster we are done with Ashe the sooner we can crush the Ice-Witch into pieces."_

 _"I know you desire her defeat above all else Voilbear, but do not underestimate the Avarosan. They may be weaker than us but Ashe has far more carisma than i have and they outnumber us three to one. Even if we would win Lissandra could just wipe the floor against the rest of our forces."_

 _"I don´t really know what you expect the result to be. It is impossible for both tribes to fight alongside each other. Even if we don´t fight each other none of would make the first step to defeat Lissandra as she other one would just use that weakness. But the longer we wait the stronger the Ice-Witch and her followers will get."_

 _"Your probably right but there has to be a way. Fighting Ashe now will hinder us more than help us. I´ll think about it in the next days. Now rest up, the next time will be as difficult as an accual battle."_

 _"Just don´t take too long chief. Were trusting you on this." The Ursine parted ways with Sejuani. She looked after him thoughtfully. 'Let´s hope I won´t betray their trust'_

* * *

The noise from outside woke Sejuani up. She had originally planned to sleep longer as the next stay at an inn was not certain, and she had paid quite a bit to rest there. But she also did not want to overstay her welcome at this town. She got up from her bed, put on her armor and flung her rucksack over her back. The Innkeeper was not attending the counter at the moment and the rest of the room was almost empty as well. Sejuani stepped outside and took a deep breath, the air smelled of dung and smoke. The people were already well at work on the street. The carpenter was opening up his store a hammer in his hands. Two children were running around the entrance of the weaver´s house. Sejuani paid Bristle a short visit to look if he was alright. The giant boar was happy he had got a proper quarter for the night. Sejuani wanted to pay the weaponsmith a visit as her blade began to dull and she could always look for another weapon she could use. After walking along the street and taking a trun left the froge came in sight. It looked much more plain that the great Steelforges Sejuani came to know in the Freljord. Nevertheless the owner was already hammering a piece of metal at the anvil and was sweating quite a lot in the heat of the oven.

"Good Morning. Lovely forge you have here, I got an order for you if its alright." Sejuani tried to sound polite and friendly.

The craftsman looked up from his work and looked upon her with distrust. "Don´t take any Orders from strangers these days. I assume you´ve already heard about the witch? Not very keen on ending up in this kind of situation again."

That was annoying to say the least but not that surprising considering how all the other townsfolk had treated her. "I don´t ask about much, just sharpening my blade. It has seen better days." Sejuani tried to presuade the man. She unsheathed her blade and showed it to the smith.

"It´s a bit dull but definetly a fine piece of craftsmanship." He really was impressed by the quality of the blade and had difficulty refusing the offer. " The criminal wanted the same as you though. Got her blades still laying arround here." He took a couple of seconds to think about it. "Alright, I´ll do it. I don´t want your money though. You see the mayor has obliged me with looking after the things from the prisioner. I would just smelt them but I don´t trust anything that criminal has touched."

"That´s a strange request. I want to see the things first ." Sejuani wasn´t necessarily worried, these people suspected everything to be magical and therefor evil. She had heared of cursed weapons or accesories but they were often only fairy tales.

"Of course." The smith moved to the back room of his forge and returned with a big package of fabric. He layed it on the anvil and moved back to steps. "Open it at your own risk."

Sejuani pushed the fabric aside revealing four middle sized blades, that seemed to be missing a handle. There was also a bigger piece of what seemed to be some kind of armor with a hole in the middle. The most intriguing thing though was fistsized orb in a perfectly round shape, not even one scratch stained it.

"You said these things were her weapons, but I don´t think i could use them as such in this condition." Her tone was slightly disappointed.

"Certainly not... because she is a witch. She let those blades fly beside her, she didn´t even need to touch them. And this" he pointed to the metal ring, " behind her head. I was really relieved when the guardsmen came to imprision her."

After a brief moment of hesitation Sejuani reached out for his hand." I agree to your terms." Even if she couldn´t use these weapons herself they would get her some money in the next town. Soon after that the sound of the whetstone sharpening a blade filled the air. Sejuani even managed to uphold a conversation with the smith. She learned about the demacian aristocracy and how the different regions were ruled. It was very informative and it was the first time while talking to some of the townsfolk that she didn´t want to smash their face in.

It took the smith, who´s name was Greg, about an hour to finish his work and he handed the sword back to Sejuani. They exchanged some words of gratitude and then parted ways. Sejuani walked back in the direction of the Inn. Noticing a lot of people moving outside of town she remembered that the execution was probably taking place soon. As Sejuani wanted to see the person who had caused such a rukus in town she decided to join them. There were about 40 people standing infront of the platfrom she had seen yesterday. The accused was already standing on it restrained with handcuffs. She had long brown hair and wore rather short clothes for this climate in a mix of red and silver armor. As the crowd slowly turned silent Sejuani could hear their conversation.

"...told you, I am not your enemy" she said in clam but commanding voice. "Demacia and Ionia are allies so there is no reason for this mess."

"You can´t talk yourself out of this witch! We saw your magic first hand and will not let it slide. In Demacia magic users are always brought to justice!"

"We both fight Noxus, so why would you kill one of your allies. Also as I have said multiple times, I´m not using magic."

"Enough of your lies. We saw it at the forge when your blades and this...thing flying by your side. There is no way your not a souceress!"

"Why do you even care in the first place? We are allies against Noxus, our common enemy. You should try to kill your enemy not your friend."

"Your are as much of an ally to me as any Noxian. Nobody in our town had ever been in your precious Ionia. I was not our decision but that of the capital to help your country. To be honest I would rather leave a Noxian alive than a magic user."

The eyes of the woman suddenly turned dark."So you value a Noxian over an Ionian? You would take the live of an innocent instead of a warmonger?"

"Just shut up! I´ve made my point!"

"I see." There was a drastic change in attitude. Sejuani could fell the air grow colder with hostility. "If this is what you desire you will get it." Her voice didn´t even sound like it was her own anymore.

The woman shot a look at Sejuani and suddenly the package the had been given by the smith was teared from her hands. The blades burst out of the fabric flying in different directions, but instanly turned to circle around the now red glowing orb. The 'weapon' flew towards the captive and cut through the handcuff in one swift slice. The woman, now free free from her shackles, turned toward her watcher who just stared at her in awe.

Seems like the rumor were more true that Sejuani had thought.'Now its getting interesting' Ready to defend herself Sejuani gripped the handle of her sword. 'Should´ve taken the flail with me.' A small grin appeared on her face.


	4. Chapter 4

**_Here is the fourth chapter. This one was the most difficult one so far. Writing in a different language than you normaly do is more challenging than I thought it was. I still hope you like it. Note that I losely follow the Lore but I will not try to 100% recreate some situations or characters._**

 ** _Enjoy_**

* * *

 _Irelia didn´t believe what she just heard._

 _'These people hate Ioanians more that Noxians! They all deserve death! Just let go.' The Voice in her head commanded._

 _'No! They are just a bit ignorant but nontheless innocent!'_

 _'These "Innocents" are about to kill you! You must act now, for Ionia!'_

 _'Shut up, I wont kill them.' She refused to sucumb to her mourderous desires._

 _'You´ve seen what happens if you don´t fight...don´t kill.'_

 _Images of Irelia´s hometown in flames flashed her memory. She and her men infront of the gate. A Noxian general with a giant runeblade charged her together with her soldiers. Irelia crossed blades with the other woman countless times but their duel was interrupted by a loud detonation. The sky darkenend as huge projectiles of Noxus artillery flew at them. The impact shock the ground and toxic gases and liquids flooded the battlefield. Screams of pain and death followed. The streets were soon filled with dismembered corpses dying to the chem-tech weaponry. Noxians and Ionians alike were burried in this hell._

 _'Did you not swear to never let something like this happen?' The Voice echoed through her mind._

 _'I did.'_

 _'Then fullfill your duty and kill them all. If you don´t Ionia will burn again. None of them are free of sin.'_

 _'But they are my allies.' Irelia began to falter._

 _'They don´t see you as an ally, they even want to kill you. They are like Noxians. They are Noxians.'_

 _'These people are Demacians.'_

 _'Does it really matter which Nation they belong to? They are not on your side, and if they are not on your allies they are your enemy.'_

 _'You´re right, they are not on my side.' Irelia thought, giving in to her rage that had fuelled her for so long._

"I see. If this is what you desire you will get it." She looked over the crowd and felt her blades close-by. Now was the time to strike and none of these people should be allowed to survive.

* * *

Freed from her shackles the woman made one small gesture and all four of her blades pierced through the chest of the guard next to her. She spread her hands and the man was torn into pireces as the blades returned to the orb flying in front of her. The scent of blood now filled the air. The mob which had only watched quietly until now burst out in a wave of screams and most of them fled for the citygate.

The Ionian turned around quickly to face her other opponents which had entered the platform to stop her. She pointed at the soldiers before her, the blades shot forth impaling four of them instantly leaving only one alive. He jumped form the platform but still made an effort to battle her on solid ground. While following him her gaze was fixed on him, filled with rage and dispair at the same time. A few of the remaining townsfolk summoned their courage and stood beside the guard to stop the madwoman. But they had no chance as they were cut down one by one. It looked more like she was dancing through them than accually fighting, her blades, with the orb at the center, following her very movement. Soon the ground was soaked in blood, gore. Extremities and innards alike laid in the flood of blood between the corpses.

Sejuani had long realized that the Ionian was much stronger than she originally had anticipated. While she had unsheathed her blade as soon as the prisoner had slaugthered the first guard, she did not try to stop her. She was facinated by the way that woman fought and what strength she possessed.

"So your the last one? To much of a coward to fight?" The mage taunted now focusing her gaze on her. Her face was red with blood and in her eyes Sejuani saw an unsatiable thrist to kill.

"Me, a coward? We´ll see about that when you beg for mercy." Sejuani reinforced her grip on the handle of her sword.

The Ionian stepped forward and sent two of her blades right at Sejuani´s face. But they were not fast enough, she managed to reflect them with ease and made an attempt to go on the offensive herself. She thrusted her sword forward to hit her oponnent in the chest. In a quick motion her enemy retreated while shooting the other two blades at Sejuani. She barely avoided one of them but the other streaked her thigh, forcing Sejuani to move back. But there was no time for her to recover as another pair of weapons were about to hit her. Sejuani leaned to the right and sidestepped the attack.

'This is a tough foe. But she is too focused on the offensive. If I can land just one hit, I can win this.' Sejuani thought as the next assault hit her. This time her enemy wanted use one blade to keep Sejuanis sword busy and tried to stab her waist with the other one. Again Sejuani pulled back to protect herself. Further on the defensive Sejuani had to evade and block an onslaught of blades flying at her. The attacks became more fierce and each time Sejuani sucessfully repelled one the Ionian just increased the force of the next. The cut on her leg started to bleed heavily and Sejuani felt the pain in her shoulder again. She had to finish this soon. Any longer and she would be overpowered by the sher amount of attacks. Her foe noticed this too, and prepared for the finishing move.

"Seem´s like you´re finally out of tricks. My compliments for lasting that long though. It´s been a long time since I´ve had a worthy opponent." She stated, a smirk appearing on her face.

"You´re not bad yourself. Unfortunatly you won´t be the one winning this fight. I´ve defeated stronger ones than you."

"Petty words won´t save you. Your fate is sealed and I´ll make sure to make it quick."

She called all of her blades to her side and charged at Sejuani. Sejuani had aniticipated a move like this and faked a retreat to the right. In the last second she reversed the direction and dashed to the left. Her Oponent fell for her trap, missing her charge and leaving herself defenceless. Sejuani stepped forward and gave her a decive strike to the head with the pummel of her sword. She saw the conciousness fade out of her eyes and her body along with her weaponry fell to the ground. Exhausted Sejuani looked at the defeated woman below her. She felt no desire to kill her although she had given Sejuani quite a hard time. Instead she felt something else. 'How does she manage to fight like this?' Sejuani was really intruiged by that woman and her fighting style. She just decided on the go to find out just who his woman was and how she became that strong.

Sejuani glanced arround the 'battlefield', it was a mess of bodies and things she didn´t really want to see. A look to the citygate confimred her presumption that the townspeople had shut it and there was not way to get inside. Sejuani wistled with her hands to call for Bristle. It was time to leave this town behind. A wave off screams heralded the giant boar. The gate was crushed and her trusted companion came charging through stoping beside Sejuani. The inhabitans of Fellton were too sacred to even go outside the now broken gate, let alone stop the Fury of the North.

Sejuani collected the Ionian´s gear and stuffed it into her bags. She tied the hands of her newly acquired captive. Sejuani noticed various burns at her limbs. 'Seems like she likes to play with fire' she jokingly thought. Sejuani lifted the body up. It was much lighter than she had expected, considering she still wore her armor. "We have a new passenger Bristle." She said as she hurled the woman on the back of her mount. He grunted displeased by the increased amout of cargo. "Be nice to her." Her voice was overflowing with srcasm. A few moments later they contiuned their travel through Demacia, leaving a shaken up Fellton behind.

* * *

Quinn had watched the whole scene before from a treetop about a hundred meters from the city. The criminal which was to be executed had freed herself and slaughtered the soldiers and villagers who tried to restrain her. Quinn had been eager to help them, but her mission was more important. Then the former warchief of the winters claw had stepped up. It had been a fierce and brutal fight. It took a toll on both combatants and it looked like Sejuani would lose. In the deciding moment however she managed to outsmart her Ionian counterpart and won the dual in one single strike. To Quinns surprise she did not kill her but took the unconcious woman with her when she left Fellton.

 _Quinn had been sent to the Freljord to act as an Demacian 'observer'. The Captial supported Ashe as a potential queen, that´s why Quinn had traveled to the Avarosan and spoke to Ashe and her advisors. Ashe still was sceptical towards Demacia, as it had stood idle for many years although there was a civil war in the Freljord. She was happy nontheless to see that the Citystate acknowledged her as the future queen. Quinn was preaparing herself for the negotiatons as the Avalanche kicked off. It seemed to have destroyed all of the Winters Claw but also a lot of Avarosan people died or went missing. Braum, a trusted advisor of Ashe, and Tryndamere were among them._

 _Quinn had swiftly departed the camp to get the news of the Winter Claws annihalation to Demacia. She found Sejuani by chance as she escaped from the dead body of Tryndamere. Since then Quinn had followed the Freljordian princess to see what she was up to after losing her army like this. She had expeced her to seek revenge and keep on murdering until she would eventually be stoped. That´s why she had thought she had to end her quickly. Oddly enough she encountered a woman the next day who had lost herself and didn´t know where to go and what to do. She had decided to leave her alive but still observe her. Quinn had already sent a letter to the capital about the recent events so she had plenty of time to follow the Fury of the North._

Valor returned to her shoulder with a rat in his fangs. Quinn had given him free time while Sejuani had been at the smith. "Breaktime´s over Val" She stated while stroking his feathers. "Our little friend is moving again." She jumped down and followed the footprints of the giant boar Sejuani was traveling with. Quinn had to admit that the beast scared her quite a bit. How could this woman ride on a monster like this? From the stories and descriptions Sejuani was a mercyless warrior only valueing strength so it kinda made sense. But Quinn was not able not understand how such an animal could even be tamed.

Quinn followed the trail about four hours, still keeping to the trees, when her target suddenly stopped. Sejuani had decided to pause at a small stream. It was very quiet so Quinn tried to be as unnoticeable as possible. She glanced at their camp location. Sejuani´s mount was taking a nap while his owner resuplied and ate something. Next to the Freljordian the Ionian laid on the ground, still unconcious. 'Why did you not kill her?' Quinn reflected. 'What reason do you have spare her live?' Suddenly Valor, who had scouted ahead the whole time, let out a loud screech. He had probably spotted something to eat. Sejuani looked into the sky and instantly shot up into the air alarmed.

"Quinn was your name, wasn´t it? There is no reason to hide, so come out!"

'Damn, why do you always have to cause trouble for me Val.' Quinn slowly stepped out from the tree. She signaled Valor to come back to her and the majestic eagle landed on her shoulder.

"Seems like killing and abducting things are the hobbies of you northeners." Quinn tried to sound joking but was accually pretty tense. She felt the claws of her friend griping tightly to her. Even Valor seemed to notice the pressure in the air.

"Only if you´re a former warchief it seems." she replied. Her face was indifferent, but Quinn had no idea if that was a good or bad thing. "Nontheless I´d really like to know why you were following me? I´ve noticed for a while now that somebody was watching me. Your blue little bird-friend gave me the last hits I needed."

"I´ve seen your little 'show' by chance. You´ve won the duel but you let your Ionian friend there alive. I really wanted to know why, so the curiosity got the better of me." Quinn just hoped this lie would be enough.

"Mhh, that still does not explain to me why you were hiding behind trees and bushes. We´ve met before so we´re not really strangers." Sejuani looked really unconvinced and rightfully so.

"Sorry, but I do not really think I ´m in any way acquainted to you. I know you might be the former leader of the Winters Claw but other than that..."

"You seem very skeptical about other people. Not that it surprises me though, Fellton was basically a Fortress of distrust against non-demacians."

"I told you it wasn´t a good place to go for you. Besides I prefer the word 'carefull'."

"You were right about that. I can´t say i enjoyed my stay there." Sejuani looked more at ease than before, giving Quinn the feeling she didn´t think about her as an potential enemy anymore.

"I´ve been there a few times. They are generaly nice people but the raids of Northern tribes have made them extremly wary of strangers. But back to my question, why didn´t you slay...what´s her name even?"

"I have no idea, for the time being I´ve called her 'Blade' but she has yet to wake up. As for your question, I don´t really know to be honest. I was just really curious about the way she handled her...'weapon'. If she causes any trouble I can still just slit her throat."

Quinn was taken aback by this answer. 'Only because you´re curious about the way she fights? That´s why you spare her life?' The more Quinn got to know the Fury of the North, the more interesting she got.

"Anyways you want a meal? I´ve got some cured deer meat. I´d feel awful eating it all by myself when you´re standing there. Your Bird can have something too if he likes."

"Valor, his name is Valor. But thanks I gladly accept your offer. Haven´t eaten in about a day." Quinn sat beside the northern warrior and Sejuani handed her two skewers with food on them. In a quick motion valor ripped all the flesh from it and shwallowed it whole. 'Your always so greedy Val.'

"You had any luck hunting your prey?"

Quinn took a bite of the meat. I was tasty but lacked spices. "No, didn´t find a single trace. I figured I´d go back to the south for a while, stumpled upon your little party when I wanted to take a rest at Fellton."

"Can´t say I´m sorry about that. The whole town just pissed me off." Both women sat at the fire muching at their meal quietly. When they had finished Sejuani rose and called for her companion.

"Seems like we´re parting ways now, again."

"Any idea where you´ll be going?" Quinn knew she needed a new cover if she wanted to follow Sejuani. Hiding was not realy a viable option as Sejuani would know that she was not what she pretended to be, if she saw her again.

"Nope. Maybe just some towns in Demacia." She was packing her things and put her captive back on top of the boar.

"Maybe I can help you then. I´ve known this region for years. What do you say?" Quinn hoped she could join Sejuani or else there was no way to observe her any further.

"I´d rather travel alone to be honest. Don´t get me wrong I have nothing against you but having company always causes trouble."

"You don´t seem to be traveling alone though. You´ve got a giant boar and an Ionian woman at your side."

"Alright, you´ve got me there. Frankly I could really use guide through these lands. But don´t expect me to go all friendly and cozy. I don´t know a damn thing about you."

"That´ll solve itself in time." Quinn smiled. 'Yes it worked!' It made things for her a lot easier.

"By the way, this is my partner: Bristle." Sejuani pointed at her furry friend. Quinn was still pretty scared about this beast and Sejuani seemed to notice her anxiety. A smirk formed on her face "Didn´t you say you´re no afraid of wild animals or beasts? But you can rest easy, he is more gentle than you´d think. Unless I tell him otherwise of course."

"Britsle, huh? Interesting name." Quinn hesitanly reached for the boar´s fur and stroke it gently. Bristle grunted pleased.

"He seem´s to like you. Anyways, let´s not take root here." Sejuani swung herself on top of the animal. "Come on boy, breaktime´s over"

Quinn gave the Freljordian a questioning glance. "Don´t even think about it. You´ll have to walk." Sejuani responded resulte. She signaled Bristle to move and the strange group set out. Sejuani adapted her pace to Quinn so she had no problems of keeping up.

"Where´re we going next?" Sejuani asked.

"Fossbarrow, it´s the largest city in the north. It´s also much more welcoming toward strangers." Quinn answered looking sheepishly at the Freljordian.

"Oh, shut up. It wasn´t my fault that these idiots tried to kill an Ionian witch."

"Yeah, yeah sure, what ever you say."


	5. Chapter 5

**Alright, another Chapter finished. I added Irelia to the tags as she is going to play an important role in the story.**

 **As some of you may have noticed(or not), I am slowly trying to clean up my mistakes in the other chapters. I hope it´s still a good read for you.**

 **Enjoy**

* * *

 _Sejuani was nervous. She hated being nervous. It made her feel weak and helpless. Those were feedlings Sejuani wished to purge when she had won the war. She took a deep breth and stepped outside her tent. Tomorrow was the day, the negotiations with Ashe. It wasn´t going to be easy to get an acceptable outcome of this. While marching through the camp saw her troops preparing for the night. Volibear awaited her at a grand campfire. He looked worn out and tired, like he hadn´t sleept in a week. Sejuani saw that the sky was dark, not even one star was visible. The whole scenery looked surreal._

 _"Why did you do it chief?" Volibears voice was monotone and filled with disappointment. Sejuani had never experienced the ursine like that. He was almost always serious but still optimistic.  
_

 _"What?" Sejuni was puzzled. Had she done anything wrong?  
_

 _"Why did you do it?" He just asked again._

 _"I understood you the first time. What do you mean?" Sejuani noticed that she didn´t remember what happened today. It was like she had a blackout, her whole mind was black._

 _"You failed."_

 _"The negotiations haven´t even began yet." Atleast one thing she remembered for sure._

 _"You betrayed our trust."_

 _"I didn´t do anything." Sejuani suddenly felt really uncomfortable in this conversation._

 _"That´s why you betrayed us. You betrayed us all." He made a gesture for Sejuani to look arround. Arround them a crowd of Soldiers had gathered all staring lifeless at Sejuani. She recognized most of the faces. These were the warriors she had fought alongside to get this far. Those were her people._

 _"I did not betray anybody." Sejuani heard her voice crackle. She knew now exactly what he meant as the memories returned. Sejuani had given up, abandoned all the dreams and hopes of her people. This was only a dream but it reminded her of what she did. Until now she had not thought about it too much but now she recognized her mistake and her responsibility.  
_

 _"You travel with this demacian woman, who is almost a girl. And a strange Ionian who nearly killed you. You abandoned all your men for this company?!" He slowly closed the distance between them._

 _"What should I have done?" Seuanis voice turned desperate. Tears of sweat ran down her forehead.  
_

 _"I can´t believe we trusted you. We should have known better than this." The ursine towered above her. Sejuani could almost feel his breath. Normally she didn´t feel inferior to Volibear in anyway but she feared for her life.  
_

 _"I had no other choice. There was nothing I could do!"_

 _"There is always a choice. You´ve made yours." Volibear rammed his giant claw into her stomach. Sejuani watched in disbelief as her blood spilled out. The pain was unbearable. She fell to her knees as the strength faded form her body. She cried out but didn´t hear her own scream. There was only one thing she could hear. "BETRAYER!" Chanted in unison by all the soldiers arround her.  
_

* * *

Sejuani was yanked out of her nightmare, drenched in sweat. Nightmares weren´t new to her as she had plenty of them after her father died. But this was different. Sejuani got up and looked for Bristle, he was the only one left who could comfort her in such moments. Quinn and Sejuani had decided to rest for the night. The Ionian had still not regained conciousness, although they had traveled for a whole day. The Demacian had insisted to take the first watch. Sejuani reckoned that it was about halfway till her watch began. Still she did not dare to try to sleep again. The echoes of her dream made it impossible for her at the moment.

"Already up? You just went to sleep, didn´t you? It´s not your turn yet." Quinn sat a few meters away from the campfire and had not noticed immediatly that Sejuani had awoken.

"Just a bad dream." Sejuani replied cold.

"What was it about? The Freljord?" Her voice sparked with curiosity.

"That´s none of your concern." Quinn did not need to know about her weakness. Although Sejuani enjoyed her company she did not want to get any closer to her than necessary. 'Keep a soldier at arm´s length and he will follow you, befriend him and he will betray you.' That´s what her mentor told her. There had been exceptions of course, Volibear came to mind. But recent events let her follow this rule more strictly than ever.

"If you say so. But a burden shared is a burden lightened." Quinn looked a bit disapointed.

Sejuani didn´t answer. That was the exact reason she prefered to travel alone. She needed no help, she wasn´t weak. Other people always wanted to pry on personal matters and that annoyed Sejuani. They had their own problems to figure out, so they didn´t need to bother with hers. "I´ll go check if Bristle is alright." The company of her companion would a least cheer her up a little.

"He seemed pretty alright when I looked for him a few minutes ago. Was pretty satified with munching some pine cones." Quinn´s face was bright, the fear from Sejuani´s mount seemed to have vanished completly.

"I didn´t ask for your opinion." Sejuani´s tone had almost turned hostile. But she regreted it as soon as she said it. Quinn´s face had changed from cheerful to anxious. An akward silence hung in the air. It was supressive, almost to the point that Sejuani felt she had to apologize. But she decided against it. She didn´t owe her an apology for something that trivial. At least that´s what Sejuani thought when she approached Bristle. To her surprise he was still awake and greeted his owner with a grunt.

"Doing alright buddy?" Sejuani stroke the fur of her mount. "Listen, things aren´t that easy for me at the moment. Is it alright for you if I keep you company for a while?" The giant boar just turned his head toward the northern warrior and nuged one of her hands. This small gesture calmed Sejuani a lot. Nevertheless she still had to think about how to continue. She couldn´t follow Quinn arround Demacia forever and there was still the unresolved issue with 'Blade'. But for the moment she just felt at ease burying her face into the fur of the boar before her. She was tired of always fighting and killing but at the same time that´s what she had always been good at. Sejuani had always lived like that, ever since the death of her father. She had left everything behind from this 'old' life. Yet something inside her screamed for change. Sejuani decided to postpone this 'problem', at least until tomorrow. She lied down beside Bristle and sank into an uneasy sleep but at least there were no more nightmares.

* * *

The sun slowly emerged from the trees as the morning arrived. She had taken the second watch after Quinn had gone to bed. The sky was painted in a bright red and not a single cloud stained the sky. It was rare to see such a beautiful sunrise in the North. The air was chilly but Sejuani still felt comfortable. Nothing had happened during the night´s watch. But as Sejuani yawned and stiffled her bones she noticed the Ionian moving. Quickly she shook Quinn awake. The young Crossbowman looked at her with a questioning glance, her eye´s still emiting vibes from the land of dreams. "Our little Ionian is waking up." Sejuani just said. In one instance the Demacian was wide awake, instantly grabing her weapon and facing toward the possible threat. Together they walked over to the Ionian. Sejuani confronted the supposed witch.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" Sejuani couldn´t hide a grin.

"Not exactly." The Ionian responed while uneasily trying to free her hands. She looked exhausted and the bluge on her head where the pummel had hit her looked bad. Her face was still covered in red from the other day. She fixed her gaze upon Sejuani.

"We got some questions for you, Ionian."

"I would apreaciate it if you could untie me first. Also the blood on my face and clothes doesn´t really feel comfortable."

"Sorry, not happening. After what went on yesterday I´d rather have you restrained." The Ionian just glanced at her in silence. Her look was indifferent, no trace of the rage and bloothirst she had seen yesterday. Sejuani took this a good sign, although she was not sure what to think of this sudden change.

"So, first question. Who are you?" Despite Sejuani´s curiosity about the stranger´s weapon she wanted some basics. Her captive was taken aback by the simplicity of the question. The neutral look on her face faded away and was replaced by surprise.

"You don´t know who I am? Are you being serious?"

"No, obviously not. That´s why I´m asking." Sejuani was annoyed by the lack of respect in her voice.

"I am Irelia of Ionia. Former Captain of the guard of Placidium and defender of the Ionian Islands against the Noxian invaders."

"Wow that´s some title you have there. Never heard of you though. So Irelia it is?"

"Call me what you will, it makes no difference." There it was again, the indifferent stance. She seemed to no care about anything right now.

"Alright, second question. How do you use your baldes? You´ve given me plenty of trouble yesterday and I want to know what magic this is."

"It´s not magic. It´s my own will."

"If my bare will could move swords through the air I´d call it magic to be honest. So what´s the difference?"

"You can throw a fireball with magic, but you can´t control his trajectory. I can control my blades however I want. It´s like moving your own arm or leg, its much more intuitive."

"So you´re saying that you don´t even have to control any magic to use a weapon as this?"

"Of course. But the sacrifice you would have to make would be far greater than your gain. These blades are my weapons but also my burden."

"Enough with your cryptic words. Express yourself clearly, what sacrifice and burden do you speak of?"

"The orb contains a part of my soul, but the orb also harbours it´s own soul which in turn is now a part of me."

"Meaning?" This grew far more complicated than Sejuani had thought. Seriously this Ionia-nation had to be a group of freaks. She had never heard something about weapons having a soul and sacrifices to control it.

"Meaning your not alone in your mind anymore. The voice is always with you and it will try to take control. You already had the pleasure of seeing first hand what happens if I succumb to it."

"So you´re saying that you are two persons?" This explained her sudden change in attitude yesterday. She could of course be lying, but there was no way to tell. So Sejuani just trusted Irelia on her words.

"If you break it down to the core, yes. It is of course far more complicated than that. I was on the verge of dying and in one last resort my soul was split and anchored-"

"Yes, yes enough with the complicated shit. I have no use for this weapon of yours. On to the third question, what did you want to do that far from home? I don´t know where Ionia lies but I know it can´t be in the north."

"I exiled myself from Ionia. The blades are the cause of it. As long as this voice lingers within me I cannot return to my homeland. That´s why I searched for answers at Mount Targon north east from here."

"Only a fool would try to climb this mountain. It is guarded by the Rakkor tribes and the Order of the Solari." Sejuani herself had never been at Mount Targon, but the when the skies were clear the Mountain top was visible throughout all of Freljord. But the Rakkor and Solari were suspicious of any intruders because of the religous sights surrounding the slope. It wasn´t easy to just climb the mountain, the indigenous people would stop foreigners eventually. Most of the people were lucky if they returned alive.

"Fool or not, I´ve gotten the answers I needed."

"Wasn´t enough to heal you as it seems." Sejuani purposely let out that provocation. But the Ionian seemed unimpressed and as calm as ever.

"No, but I know what I have to do to end this curse."

"Last Question. If I let you free right now, what will you do?"

"Continue my quest of course. I don´t harbour any hard feelings toward you if that´s what you mean. After all it was me who attacked you first."

Quinn raised her voice. "You don´t plan on just letting her go unpunished?! She killed about a dozen innoncent civilians!"

"These people meant as much to me as a Snowflake on an avalanche. I dare say her action was somewhat justified, a little extreme I have to admit but understandable non the less."

"It just doesn´t sit right with my sense of justice." Sejuani could see the anger in the Crossbowwoman´s eyes. It surprised Sejuani a little as she had thought Quinn was just a nomad traveling through the North. But it seemed she was a little more than that. Her sense of equity meant that she was loyal to her country or at least the people of it.

Irelia cleared her throat. "I suppose it´s only fair if I receive a punishement for my mistakes. As you have saved me I will try to protect you as a guard for as long as you wish."

"Hold on just a moment! I never asked for you to be my guard. I didn´t even want to punish you in the first place. If i wanted that I would´ve just killed you yesterday. Besides how do I know that you wont drive your blades in my back when I start to trust you. We part ways now and never see each other again, that´s how it should be."

"I´ll swear an oath." Irelia just continued not even reacting to Sejuanis protest." Ionian´s never break their promises, we are bound by them. It would tranish our honor and soul." The Ionian looked dead serious. But Sejuani wasn´t convinced.

"She speaks the truth," Quinn reinforced Irelias argument. "It is said that Ionians never break their oaths. It would also mean that we could monitor her and stop her from going into 'Bloodlust' again."

"Still, I have no desire to have yet another stranger at my side." Sejuani gave Quinn a stern look. "There are enough around me as it is." Sejuani was never great with people, she just knew how to lead a warband nothing else. Traveling with strangers was just always troublesome and not worth the effort.

"I assure you that I won´t be a burden to you or your friend. In fact you wont even notice my presence."

"She is not my friend, more of a guide." Sejuani bit her lip. Why couldn´t she just refuse her offer? "Fine you can come with us. Your 'weapon' is in the bag over there. For the time being you can use one of my rucksacks for your stuff." Sejuani cut Irelias ties and helped her get up. What was she getting herslf into again? "At the moment we are heading for Fossbarrow. Are you okay with this?"

"Whatever you say, I will follow you."

"No, that´s not how we´re gonna do this. I dont want some kind of slave, who just follows me blindly. Please speak your mind next time I ask you something." Irelia just noded at her statement. Sejuani didn´t know what to think about this situation. An Ionian warrior just agreed to serve under her, but Sejuani felt no joy. As leader of the Winters Claw she had always been happy to receive new recruits or soldiers. But now she just thought about the moment when she had abandoned all of them. She didn´t want to lead anymore, as she felt responsible for all the lives the avalanche had taken. Not letting something like this happen again was one of the few things on her to-do list. "Alright with these things settled, lets get moving again. We´ve wasted enough time with chitchat."

They packed up their equipment and were ready to set off as the sun reached her zenith. Instead of riding ontop of Bristle Sejuani decided to walk with Irelia and Quinn and let her mount follow just felt wrong to ride on Bristle when both of her companions had to walk. They were only to days from Fossbarrow anyway. Sejuani hoped to find a new goal or purpose to follow. Living into the day wasn´t bad but she couldn´t keep on living like that, not after what she´d lost.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Hello again!**_

 _ **Chapter six is now finished. I´ve noticed the chapters getting longer and longer, but I hope this isn´t a problem for you. I know up until now the story moved on very slowly. If it is too slow (or even too fast) feel free to critize and propose suggestions. Otherwise enjoy and i hope you like it . :)**_

 _ **Notes: VC = Valoran Standart Calendar (I just assumed that there was some kind of unified Calendarsystem in Valoran). The Calendar consists of 18 months with 20 days each making one year 360 days, so about a year on earth.**_

* * *

The next two days were pretty unevenful. Quinn was still upset that Sejuani had wanted to just let Irelia go. In her opinion its was unbearable to let a murderer roam free without any punishment. In Demacia justice was one of the most important virtues and Quinn was always trying to follow this ideal. Using Valor, Quinn also send another letter to Seneschal Xin Zhao detailing the recent days:

* * *

 _Dear Seneschal Zhao Xin, 16/XV - VC  
_

 _I´ve now joined 'The Fury of the North' in her travels to have a close eye on her. As you may have already heard form one of your spies she was involved in the incident in Fellton. However she was not the cause of it. A rightful execution was interupted when the captive freed herself. She murdered some of the townspeople but also fought the Leader of the Winters Claw. In her self-defence she brought the criminal to justice._

 _As we have suspected she is very capable of fighting and could cause a potential threat to Demacia. However I have made the decicion to leave her alive for the time being. As I have joined her as a comrade I can now find out her true motives for traveling through Demacia. I hope you trust my ablity to judge and leave this matter to me. There is a good chance that she will not cause any danger to citizens or the military. If you disagree or have new orders send me a message through the pigeonry in Fassbarrow. I anticipate that we will reach the city on the 17/XV and will remain there for at least two days._

 _Justice and Peace for the Demacia_

 _High-Ranger Quinn Featherstorm_

* * *

She lied about Irelia still being alive, but telling the truth would cause more harm than good. Demacia and Ionia were in fact allies and if it came to light that an Ionian was almost executed it would overshadow this relationship. Irelia was a woman of honor and as such would not accuse any Demacian after what she had done. Still Quinn couldn´t bring herself to like the Ionian woman, partially because she killed innocent people but also because she just never said anything. Irelia had barley spoken more than a dozen words since they had left their camp. She didn´t mind talking only to Sejuani but she had the feeling Irelia was constantly judging her. However she had the impression that she had made progress in getting to know Sejuani. Although she was very hesitant to tell Quinn anything about herself she at least managed to learn a few things. Sejuani came from the northern part of Freljord and met Bristle when she was about ten years old. She had known him for about 15 years now, though Sejuani wasn´t quite sure. That meant she was five years older than Quinn, given that the numbers were correct. Quinn also noticed, that Sejuani couldn´t sleep that well. The recent events seemed to have a larger impact on the former Warleader than Quinn had thought. But whenever she tried to bring up the subject Sejuani immediatly brushed it off.

Valor had just returned from Fossbarrow to send the message. Quinn told the others he often flew away for up to two days but always returned to her. The Sun slowly reached the trees as the group of travelers approached a carriage stuck in a pothole. During the winter the roads in the north were often in a poor condition and transporting goods was risky. A man attemped to push the cart out of his misery but he tried in vain. The cart was just too heavy for one person to move it. As Quinn and her companions closed in she raised her hand in a greeting.

"Peace and Justice to you. Are you heading to Fossbarrow too?"

The man, who seemed to be about forty years old, looked up from the cart drenched in mud. He wore a coat of wool and a brown hoodie hid his hairs and a part of his face. When he saw the three women he put on a faint smile. "Yes, but as you can see im stuck in a hard place. I´ve been trying to get this bad boy free for at least three hours now. My horse is too exhausted to get the job done."

Sejuani spoke up before Quinn could offer him help. "We can try to send help when we arrive in Fossbarrow. It´s only about two hours away so you´ll have to wait for another five hours or so." Quinn didn´t understand why they couldn´t just help him right now. Bristle was more than strong enough to pull the entire cart out of the pothole by himself.

"Sejuani, couldn´t Bristle just pull-" But Quinn was immediatly cut off.

"Are you serious? Bristle isn´t just an disposable animal for work. You wouln´t use Valor as a carrier pigeon for some stranger would you?" Her voice was as sharp as one of Irelias blades. 'I certainly do so, but i don´t like it.' Quinn thought to herself.

"But Sejuani, this man needs our help. We can´t just let him stuck here." Why was Sejuani always so unaccommodating? Quinn reckoned that Bristle wouldn´t even have to make an effort to move the carriage.

"That´s why I said were sending help when we´re arriving in the city." Sejuani´s gaze was now fixed upon the Demacian. In her eyes there was no sympathy for the merchant. They looked as cold as ice.

The Merchant held up is hands in defence. "No, it´s quite alright. I can hold out for another half a day or so, that´s no problem for me. I would reward you though for helping me right now." The man seized a big pouch from his cart. "Fifty silversword if you can help me out of my misery immediatly. I don´t want to arrive late at my receiver."

Quinn gave Sejuani a pleading look. "Sejuani we can really use the money. Irelia has not one coin after what happened in Fellton and you only have Freljordian currency." Now was really not the time to be subborn about such petty things.

Irelia opened her mouth for the frist time after hours. "Quinn is right. It would benefit us greatly to help this man in need. Though I can´t force you to do something you don´t want. I serve you after all."

Sejuani clearly fought with herself. She turned toward her mount and petted the boar one he head. "Sorry partner, if it was up to me we would just carry on. But the money is just too good to pass up." Bristle seemed ot sense that something was up. He glanced at Sejuani with worry in his gaze. He was cleraly unhappy as he was harnessed infront of the cart and didn´t want to move at first. It even took Sejuani five mintues to convince him. But once he gave in, the work was done in seconds, one strong pull from the boar and the carriage was out of the hole. One of the wheels was still broken, but taking one of the spare ones they quickly had repaired the vehicle. The merchant was impressed with how fast they had fixed the damage. He reached for Sejuani´s hand.

"Truly, thank you Northener. Peace and Justice may forever be with you." He seemed genuinely thankful. As Sejuani returned the gesture he handed her the bag of money. "Please allow me to travel with you to the city so I can give you a proper compensation. I know you don´t like that your companion has to work for it, but my reward will be worth your trouble, I promise."

Quinn answered before Sejuani had any chance to. "We would love to. More company is always welcome." The Fury of the North just muttered something unintelligeable and Irelia just noded in silence. As the three of them climbed the carrige Sejuani whispered to Quinn. "We´ll talk about this later." The Ranger had a bad feeling about this. Maybe she shouldn´t have just forced her decision onto Sejuani.

The two hours passed rather quick as Bristle had no problem pulling the carriage. He didn´t even seem to be exerted. The merchants horse trotted beside them. The signs of a big city emerged on the horizon. Fossbarrow seemed to be at least thrice if not four times bigger than Fellton. It was surrounded by polished granite walls and a great spire towered over the city. Quinn knew it was a tower from a Lightbringer temple. The Lightbringers were the protectors of Demacia. Quinn never could never really emphasize with them tough. The Lightbringers were ancient warriors who bashied the magic from the runewars. They estblished the city of Demacia and many of the laws concerning magic were created by them. But to Quinn they always seemed a bit too conservative. And while the current Crownprince Jarvan IV. Lightshield tried to modernize many of these laws it was questionable if he could achieve anything. The prejudice and rumors about magic fuelled the fear towards any magic or their users.

Two fully armored guards stopped them at the city gate. "Stop! What is your buisness in Fossbarrow?"

The merchant answered for the three of them. "We are here to trade, rest and resupply."

"And what is this animal?" One of the soldiers pointed at Bristle. "It doesn´t look like its form here."

"It´s my mount." Sejunai responded resolute. "Never seen a Freljordian boar?"

"Sorry for the inconvenience, but we have to control everybody who enters this town. These times are dangerous and we don´t want any enemies of Demacian in our city. Please give us your names and descent."

"Trevos Ironcrawler." the merchant said as he pulled back his hoddie. The man was bald and a large scar canopied most of his head. Quinn knew exactly who he was. General Ironcrawler had repelled more than one attack on Fossbarrow from Noxian rading parties. In one of these battles he had clashed with Darius, one of Noxus grandgenerals. He survived, somehow, but the scar still showed how strong his opponent had been.

"Gerneral?! Sorry we didn´t know." The guards were clerarly surpirsed at the sudden apprearance of their supperior and hasitly saluted.

"Stand at ease soldiers. These three women have helped me on my travels so I vouch for them."

"Of course, they can all pass."

The carrige moved again and Trevos led bristle to the stables. Compared to those in Fellton these were huge. The reason was very simple, one of the chavalry devisions of demacias army was stationed in Fassborrow. The pure white horses were the best horses Demcaia had to offer and many aristocrats used them as their personal mounts. The general tourned arround to face the three woman, sitting in the back of the cart.

"I thank you once again for your help. My mission was cruscial to the safety of Demacia. Nevertheless I do like to know who you are."

"I am Quinn Featherstorm." Quinn gave the man a long look. "And they are Irelia of Ionia and Sejuani of the Freljord."

"Freljord, huh? Troubling times there right now. But thanks again for helping me. As a token of my gratitude I will give you one of these horses." He pointed at the stables.

"We can´t accept such a gift." Quinn instantly replied. "After all the only-"

"We´ll take them. Having a good horse always has it´s uses." Sejuani just ignored Quinn. Why was she always doing her own thing? On one hand Quinn admired her authority on the other she was annoyed that the Fury of the North always opposed her. The group entered the stable, leaving Bristle and the cart outside. The general walked up to one of the horses with had a brown stripe accross his face.

"This is Hope. He isn´t as fast as the others but still a good damn horse. I´ll tell the equerry to give it to you when you leave."

"Sounds good to me." Sejuani had obviously taken control of the situation. "You know any good inn where we can stay?"

"About 200 meters from here. Called "Fortune". If you need supllies the market is on the east side of town, as is the smith. I wish you safe travels and good luck."

"Same to you." Sejuani reached for the Soldiers hand. They parted ways and Sejuani rented a booth for Bristle to stay at. After that they left the stables and headed for the Inn. Fossbarrow was better than Fellton in every aspect. The houses didn´t look as run-down and the streets were much cleaner. Also the pople seemed to be genuinely friendly.

"Next time, don´t decide over my head." Sejuani said tartly towards Quinn.

"You sure know how to not make friends. Why are you so egoistic? Only because we helped him we can afford to stay here."

"This is not about egoism, it´s about handling your own problems. He was a soldier and as such he should have been more than capable to solve his own problems. But he was too weak. So he did not deserve the help he wanted."

"Being strong and let others help you doesn´t contratic itself Sejuani. You would do good in remembering that." Quinn was really annoyed right now. She always thought she was bad with people but Sejuani took it to a whole new level.

"We´ll see about that."

The Inn turned out to be a three floor building in the middle of the town. It was clearly one of the hotspots of the town as there were little to no tables empty as they entered. The Innkeeper was a yound man with a small head but a full grown beard. He greeted the newcomers with abroad smile which revealed a big tooth gap.

"Greetings travelers. Welcome to 'Fortune'. Rooms are two Silverswords per day including food. If you need anything feel free to ask."

"We need three rooms for two days." Quinn glanced arround. "Also a table would be nice."

"Twelve Silverswords it is then. The table in the corner there are three seats left. You just need to put up with the yordle occupying the other one. Rooms 22 to 24 are free for you." It felt good to see some friendly Demcian faces again. Quinn really had missed her home during the time in the Freljord. Quinn put the money on the counter and the Innkeeper gave her the keys. She winked her two companions to follow her and soon they stood before the 'free' table. A small yordle with two Pigtails sat there, before a pile of food and a giant mug of ale.

"Are those free?" Quinn asked politely." There are no other seats left for us."When the small person noticed the strangers she gulped and turned towards them.

"Of course. I don´t get company that often and meeting strangers is always exciting." Only now Quinn caught sight of the giant hammer leaning against the wall behind her. It was almost as big as the yordle herself and Quinn reckoned that even Sejuani would have difficulty lifting that weapon. "I mean there is also the chance that one of you is the hero. My name´s Poppy and I´m keeping the hammer till the hero is found." Quinn had already heard the stories about the yordle roaming Demacia in search for a great hero. In her Journey she had saved countless lives but never found her 'hero'. Quinn always thought her search was pointless. When you need a hero why don´t you try to become one yourself?

"Hero?" Irelia spoke up. "I don´t think anyone of us could call themselves that." Quinn gave her an annoyed look. "Why are you serching for one anyways?"

"The hero will save all the people in trouble. I´ve been searching for him for years now but everytime I think I´ve found him, he just dies."

"You know, it doesn´t work like that. You´re not born a hero nor are you selected one. The people you encounter and things you do decide who you are." Quinn had not expected such a serious answer from Sejuani. Then again she just didn´t know enough about her to judge. "It could very well be that the people you meet view you as the real hero."

"Me? The Hero? Nah, that´s ridiculous. He has to be out there somewhere and I´m gonna find him." Poppy answered in a dutyful voice. She was convinced of her mission and not a trace of doubt lay in her eyes.

During the evening they debated about all kinds of stuff. Quinn told them about the wilderness in Demacia and how the different regions varied in Flora and Fauna. Quinn also got to know some of the stories from Poppy on her travels. And after some alcohol even Irelia seemed in the mood to talk more. She talked about the Isles of Ionia and their different inhabitans. Only Sejuani was awfully quiet this evening and Quinn noticed this with worry. Something was on the warriors mind and if not even alcohol could get it off her it had to be something serious. Quinn wondered when the last time was she had worried about someone in particular. She told herself it was for her mission, but there was also something different which she could not discribe. An emotion or a feeling? When it got late and the inn began to empy the three women excused themselves leaving the yordle to herself. They headed upstairs to the rooms and Quinn distributed the keys among them.

Sejuani stopped before her door. "Anyway what´s the plan for tomorrow?" Sejuani asked Quinn. The anger from before seemed to have vanished and Quinn was relieved about that.

"Were gonna buy some fresh food and I also need to visit the smith for some bolts. You can join me if you want."

"Sure, got nothing better to do. I don´t get up that early though, or is that a problem for you?"

"No, no, not at all. Just knock when you´re ready."

"Alright, see you then. Goodnight you two." After she disapeared in her room Quinn and Irelia were left on the corridor.

"What is your goal, Quinn?" Irelias eyes narrowed. "Your interest in Sejuani is aparent. What reason does a ranger from the wild have to seek the company of a warrior from the north?" Quinn was taken aback by that statement. Had it really been that obvious?

"I´ve traveled alone for a good while, and some company is always a nice change." She tried to sound appeasing.

"You´re not really happy with my company though."

"That´s because you killed innocents. Of course I can´t trust you that easily."

"Sejuani was the leader of a marauding tribe, so she isn´t exactly innocent. No, it has to be something specific about her." Well she had a point there."If you have good intentions I will not stop you. If you wish to harm her however, be sure to be preapared as I will not let you go unpunished." Irelia relaxed, although her voice sounded like it could cut right through the ranger. Without another word the Ionian entered her room and Quinn alone remained. The fact that Irelia had already noticed something was off about her unsettled her. They had traveled only two days, how long could she keep up her camouflage? This question kept her from sleeping at least an hour or two until she finally succumbed to the world of dreams.

* * *

 _Sejuani sat in her tent once again. 'Not again. I´ve had this dream too often the last days.' All she wanted was to end it right now. The last dreams had had a bad end so Sejuani assumed this would be no exception. Without delay she left her tent and walked towards the great campfire. As she had anticipated Volibear already waited for her. He mustered Sejuani with a depreciative look._

 _"Alright, lets get this over with." Sejuni wasn´t keen on having the samething happening again, but she also didn´t want another sermon about her being a betrayer._

 _"You expect me to just kill you, but I will not grant you your wish." There it was again, his dismissive voice.  
_

 _"Why are you even here Volibear? Can´t you just disapear, you are dead anyways." Sejuani was really annoyed. Why couldn´t she just dream of some happy little meadow with bees, butterflies and bunnies!?  
_

 _"Volibear is merely an image, an image of someone you trusted. But I am a part of you. The part that made you a great leader. But some leader you are..."_

 _"I have no need for you. My time as Princess has passed." Well, not that it was her decision, but she couldn´t change what had happened.  
_

 _"I think you don´t get it. I am You. Getting rid of me would mean getting rid of yourself. Although the difference might not be as huge. No one would care if you killed yourself right now. Ashe and Lissandra most likely think you died anyway. No one would morn for you." Sejuani hesitated. He was right that she had lost most of the people she knew. But she still was not alone. "Do think your two 'new' companions would really care? Irelia will probably be more happy than sad. Her punishment would be fullfilled and she could continue on her quest to cure herself. As for Quinn, she might like you, but then again you have refused to trust her time and time again. Everytime she tried to help you, you just brushed her off. She´ll have no difficulty finding new people to travel with."_

 _"I don´t care what you say. I still have a life to live, what ever awaits me." Sejuani was surprised to hear that phrase from her mouth. The last days she had just followed Quinn and didn´t even know what the next day had in store for her.  
_

 _"You may say that now but we´ll see. You´ll need to change to keep on living like that, weather you manage that is up to you. But until then I will remind you of what you have done." Volibear turned his back on her an instantly vanished into a fog behind him. Sejuani was left alone at the campfire, still thinking about Volibear had said. He was probably right, Irelia and Quinn were not her friends. Sejuani didn´t even fully trust them. As a leader of a tribe that had been no problem, the soldiers were her subordinates. But the Ionian and the Demacian were nothing of the sort. Irelia had sworn to serve her, but it felt different from a soldier-chief relationship. Quinn had tried to get close to her, but Sejuani was sacred, scared to lose those that she trust again. Right now they were acquaintiances but nothing more. But maybe it was not too late to change that?  
_


	7. Chapter 7

_**Well, here´s the next chapter! This story also hit over 10 followers. :D**_

 _ **I´m surpised how many of you like the story despite this being my very first try on a fanfic. I hope I won´t disapoint you at the end. Feedback and suggestions are always apreaciated. But enough of that, here´s chapter seven!**_

 _ **Enjoy**_

* * *

The sun had already risen well above the rooftops of the city buildings as Sejuani awoke. The dream she had still echoed in her mind. It had showed her how insignificant she was right now. Sejuani put on her armor and readied herself to go out with Quinn. She didn´t even know why she had agreed to accompany her in the frist place. Sejuani hated markets and buying stuff in general. There were just too many strangers and everybody just wanted to sell their shit, no matter what methods they had to use. But a promise was a promise, so she found herself before the Demacian´s door five minutes later.

"Quinn." She knocked twice. "I´m ready to head out." She didn´t even need to wait , the door opened immediately. Quinn didn´t wear her armor, just a shirt and a pair of trousers. She flashed Sejuani a smile.

"Took you long enough. It´s almost noon. The sooner we head out, the better. Also what is this get up? You´re not going to war or anything."

"I don´t have anything else. I also don´t need anything else. There is no point in having more than one outfit if they are all inferior to my current one."

"You can´t go over the market dressed like that. At least leave your helmet behind. And while we´re at it we can buy you something new."

"Thanks, but I´ll pass. I don´t need anything else." Still Sejuani took off her headgear and her bright blonde hair fell onto her shoulders. She hadn´t cut it in a while so it was longer than it would normally be. But she couldn´t bring herself to leave her headgear behind.

Quinn sighed in disappointment. "Alright, I supose we can head out."

"Wait, what about Irelia? Isn´t she coming along too?"

"Nope, said something about 'meditating' to 'fight her inner demons'?

"You don´t sound like your unhappy about that though."

"I´ll be honest with you. I can´t stand Irelia. Firstly I saw her killing people of Demacia, and while I do agree that her actions were somewhat justified in her situation, I still think she could have solved it with less bloodshed. Secondly she comes off really arrogant, she almost never talks and when she does her voice sounds like it´s drained of any emotion. Or am I wrong?"

"She is a very skilled warrior and also a very strong woman. I do respect her for that. I think her indifference towards us shows that she knows what she is doing. She has seen horrible things in the noxian invasion and probably lost countless friends. It´s only natural to not try to befriend too many people."

"Do you think I haven´t experienced horrible things? You yourself just lost your entire tribe only about a week ago, and while your not the most social person you´re still easy to converse with." There lay a certain bitterness in Quinn´s voice and Sejuani felt that maybe she shouldn´t have said her last sentence. There it was again, the akward silence that always occured when Sejuani couldn´t keep her mouth shut. She wanted to apologize this time but also didn´t see a reason to. Quinn wordlessly went downstairs.

She led the way as the two women left the Inn and strolled towards the east side of the town. The streets were buzzling with activity and much to Sejuanis surprise many of the villigers greeted them friendly. It was practically the opposite of Fellton, the people were happy about any traveler that passed through their town.

"Wow, I didn´t think the people would be that polite in Demacia after what I saw in Fellton." Sejuani tried to soothe the situation out. She didn´t want to have a fight with Quinn over something so trivial.

"Well, you had the extreme negative example in Fellton. Fossbarrow on the other hand is the extreme positive example. I´ve been here many times on my travels through Demacia, and never were the people here inpolite or rude. Most of the towns are somewhere between these two cities." Sejuani just noded. Luckily her bad mood seemed to have vanished. She enjoyed it when Quinn was holding one of her monologues. It somehow made her feel at ease. When they had traveled from Fellton to Fossbarrow Sejuani had often times just listened to her talking and had only rarely responed herself. This also prevented her from creating these akward situations. "Anyway, I need a new armor, so we need to pass by at the smith first. I already ordered it yesterday, when I fed Valor at the Pigeonry. The smith here knows me already, so it shoudn´t take too long. Also some new bolts would be nice. Additionally I want to buy some fruits. Always eating deer is getting stale after some time." After about five minutes the forge came in sight. The great oven and the table with all the weapons showed that the smith was a dilligent person. It was a woman, about ten years older than Sejuani, with short brown hair and a cruel scar on her cheek. When she noticed Quinn she immediately put her hammer down and greeted the Crossbowman with a hug.

"Quinn! It´s good to see you. You´ve been gone for ages!" Sejuani was caught by surprise, she didn´t think that Quinn was that popular. There was also a feeling that made her uncomfortable while she watched the scene, but Sejuani couldn´t say why.

"Yeah it´s been a while."

"Mathias told me you needed a new armor."

"It´s been a bit rough in the north." A faint smile appeared on her face. "The enviroment isn´t exactly welcoming. Long story short, my armor broke. As you are the best smith I know, I just headed for Fossbarrow to get a new one."

"You flatter me. As I see you also brought company."

"Yes, this is Sejuani, she´s from the Freljord. Met her in the bufferzone. She was growing sick of the north." Sejuani reached for the smith´s hand. It was riddled with weals from her work and Sejuani saw some burns on her limbs.

"The Freljord? Never been there, but from what I heard it´s a tough place to live in." Sejuani just noded in agreement. "Anyways, I´m Myria. I´ve known Quinn since her first trip up in the north. That was about five years ago. Had to repair her stuff countless times, cause she can´t watch out for her equipment."

"Traveling through Demcaia isn´t easy. Of course stuff if gonna break on a regular basis."

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Anyways I´ve got most of the pieces I need, but it´s gonna take some time. Won´t be finished until the evening. As for the price, 15 sliverswords with a bundle of crossbowbolts included."

"Thanks Myria. We´ll catch you in the evening then." Quinn seemed to be quite pleased with the result.

"Another thing, does your friend mind if I take a look at her armor? I´ve never seen something like this." The smith peeked at Sejuani with an intruiged look.

Sejuani raised an eyebrow." I prefer if you wouldn´t, though I can leave my helmet here if you want to inspect it."

"And that´s why we need to buy you new clothes, you don´t walk arround in a town fully armored." Quinn looked at Sejuani with a smirk. "All you Freljordian´s think about is how you can smash each others head in."

"There is a good reason why I am wearing my armor at all times. My experiences showed me that it is foolish to feel save at any time. And to be honest a lone ranger like you shouldn´t really wear something different than her armor." Sejuani had had plenty of situations in the past where it had came in handy that she was fully armored. An ambush by a troll patrol came to mind. She had almost killed 40 of them together with Volibear.

"I would really appreachiate that." Myria ignored Quinn´s comment and focused on Sejuani instead. The matter seemed very serious to her. Reluctantly Sejuani put her helmet on one of the tables. She knew already that it was something magical. After one of her raids into the Frostguards territory she had decided it would be for the best to enchant her whole armor to protect her from ice and magic.

"Don´t break it."

"I´ll treat it with utmost care." Myria took the piece of armor and looked like a child who had gotten a present from her parents.

The smith and the two women parted ways and Quinn and Sejuani turned towards the giant market place. There were a wide variety of stalls, ranging from simple fruit and meat stalls to jewelry boths and cloth stands. Quinn headed straight for one of the fruit stalls, Sejuani just tagged along. Most of the things Sejuani had never seen before. In Freljord fruits were rareties and as such too expensive to buy as food. Sejuani tasted some of them before of course. It had been one of the perks of a warchief. But the sher amount of the goods and their relatively low price surprised Sejuani. Aparently it was very obvious as Quinn chuckled as they passed one of the many stalls.

"Impressed already? If I had known thats all it took to impress you I should have taken you to the grand market of Demacia. It is at least ten times as big."

Sejuani just noded. She had to admit, it was very impressive compared to what most of the market in the Freljord looked like. Then again she had not visted a real 'City' up in the north, always just small villages or tribes. Ashe´s residency had probably something similar. Sejuani still remembered the day she had gotten Ashe´s truce offer. A large cravan with grain and other things. At that time she had burned the whole food to show that the Winters Claw didn´t need any help to survive, it was strong enough. In retrospective it was a pretty stupid decison. If she´d just used it to feed her warriors and overrun Ashe, but her pride had prevented her from doing that. Quinn studied the different wares and prices. One of the vendors noticed her interest.

"Need anythin miss?"

"Yes, a kilo of potates and beans as well as a jar of honey please." The man weightened the grouceries and fetched a honeyjar from the hself behind him. He put the wares infront of Quinn.

"Something else?"

"No thanks, that´ll be all."

"Alright, the potates are two and the beans and honey are three each, so eight silverswords please." Quinn searched for the money and paid the vendor. As they left the stall Sejuani was almost disappointed.

"This is rather basic . I thought you would go all out today."

"Potatoes and beans don´t start to rot as fast as many of the exotic things. And honey basically never expires. It was just practical thinking. If you want though we can go back and try something else."

"Nah, I´m fine."

Quinn grinned. "That´s what i thought."

Quinn piloted through the crownd and headed for the backery next. The amount of people here was amazing. Sejuani had never seen so many civilians on one place. As they entered the backery the air was filled with flour and the smell of freshly backed bread was overwhelming. Bread was one Sejuanis favorite foods. It was very simple yet delicious and stuffed the stomach. Unfortunatly it was difficult to grow wheat in the north, so it had been a rarity on Sejuani´s menu. Quinn purchased three big loafs of bread, one for each of the women. Sejuani was tempted to just get another one for herself but managed to overcome her desire. She didn´t want to show any signs of weakness towards Quinn. The rest of the afternoon, they spent browsing through all kinds of shops and stalls. Oddly enough they bought almost nothing. The sun approached the horizon as the two travelers returned to Myria´s forge. She was still hard at work and didn´t notice her comstumers immediatly. Much to Sejuani´s delight she found her helmet without scraches. The smith looked up as Quinn and Sejuani stood only about two meter from her.

"Oh hi, you´re back. Just give me a minute." She delivered a few strong but decisive blows to the piece before her. A small sword, which was still glowing bright red due to the heat. Then Myria hardened the piece of metal in a sink and put her hammer down. She vanished through a door at the back of the forge and returned with chestarmor in her hands. Compared to Quinn´s current one, which was white, it was azurite blue and brown. The back of the armor was covered in blue cloth that looked like giant feathers. Myria left for the other room once again and brought back two golden shin guards and a small headgear.

"All is exactly as you ordered it, with a armguard at the right where Valor can land. I also got 50 new crossbowbolts for you."

"Thanks Myria, you´re the best. I´m gonna try it out right now."

"Was that the only reason you didn´t wear your armor today?" Sejuani crossed her arms. Had Quinn just teased her before?

Quinn chuckled ."Yes and no. While I didn´t wear it today because I would get a new one, it´s also true, that sometimes you need something more relaxing than armor." Myria now turned towards Sejuani and reached out to her hand. "Thank you Sejuani for leeting me inspect your helmet. You Freljordians are really something when it´s about craftsmanship. I´ve learned much from this piece alone and you have my gratitude for it."

"It´s nothing." Sejuani just muttered. She always felt a little akward when people praised her, especially someone she didn´t know. Quinn took her newly aquired piece of clothing and just put it over her shirt. It took her about tow to three minutes to get everything right. She now looked more like a soldier than a lone nomad. Sejuani couldn´t stop herself from thinking, that the outfit looked outstanding compared to her former one. The blue colour had something majestic about them. The new shin guards also gave much more protection but at the same time didn´t restrict her agility.

"So, do I look alright?" Quinn gave Sejuani an expecting look.

"I suppose it´s alright. But a bit too much blue for my tastes." Sejuani smirked.

"Really?" The curiosity on the Demacian´s face had changed to a hesitant smile.

"I was just joking, it looks good on you." The smirk became a wide grin.

"Well that´s good then." Quinn now cheerfully replied." Normally your not really the person for jokes."

"Depends on my mood. Anyways, we should go now. I still need to look after Bristle and I believe Valor would also like to see your new getup."

"Yes, you´re right." Quinn turned toward the Forgekeeper. "Thank you Myria, for everything. We´ll see each other eventually!" Quinn reached for the smiths hand. But Myria pulled her in for another hug.

"Ah, no biggy. I´m sure you´re gonna return safe. Can´t go wrong with such a strong warrior beside you."

Quinn and Sejuani left the forge. Quinn went for the pigeonry to see after Valor and Sejuani to the stables, so they parted ways. The air slowly grew colder as the sun disapeared, but it was nothing compared to the Freljord. When Sejuani arrived at the stables, Bristle was aslept, so she just filled a bit of hey and water into his troughs and peted him on the head once. For outsiders it seemed that her reationship to her mount was just like any soldier-horse one. But to Sejuani Bristle meant much more. They had survived countless battles together and traveled through numerous snowstorms. He was the only companion she had not lost. He had also never once betrayed her trust. Even after everybody died in the avalanche she still had her one friend. Or maybe now two or three? Sejuani didn´t know if she really could count Irelia and Quinn as friends although she very much enjoyed their company. Especially the demacian Crossbowman intruiged her, dispite their differences in virtues and ideals. There was something that made her feel better when Quinn was arround although she couldn´t really pinpoit why.

* * *

When Sejuani returned to the inn Quinn already waited at one of the tables. Most of the tables were, again, already taken. But Quinn had somehow managed to get a free one. Poppy wasn´t present today. She probably left Fossbarrow to resume her quest for the hero. After ordering for three people, Sejuani went upstair to get Irelia. She was still in her room, sitting on her bed in a meditating pose when Sejuani entered.

"Quinn and me are gonna eat something now, you want to join us?"

"If I´m not a bother for you two, yes."

"You´re not, at least not for me. As far as Quinn goes I think she just has difficulty accepting what you did in Fellton. She´ll understand in time."

"You say that now, but I´m not so sure. I can see disgust in her eyes when she looks at me, and understandanly so. But let´s not take root here, Quinn´s probably already waiting for us." Irelia rose from her bed and followed Sejuani downstairs. Three bowls with what looked like a bean stew already rested on the table Quinn occupied. Soon after the waitress, a you blonde woman, brought three big mugs of ale as well. After their hunger was sated Quinn spoke up.

"So, what is our next destination. You said Fossbarrow, but after that..."

"To be honest I´ve no idea. What about you Irelia?" Sejuani said with a stern face. She had not really thought about how she would continue her travel.

"As stated before, if follow your lead Sejuani, where-" The Freljordian cut her off.

"ever I go? As you´ve just heard, I don´t know where to go. Let´s assume you were free to go, what would be your next destiantion?"

"To the place the poeple of Mount Targon adivsed me to go to eradicate the voice within me. Shurima."

"Shurima?!" Quinn exclaimed. A few of the other guest at the Inn turned towards the trio as the Demacian shot up. "We´d have to travel at least a month or to to get there, besides Shurima is huge. Do you even know where to go there?"

"Bel´Zhun. And from there inwards to the old captial." Dispite Quinn´s sudden outburst Irelia raimed as calm as ever.

"You know there a rumors of the resurection of Azir? He wants to bring Shurima back to his former glory. If you ask me it´s a very bad idea." Quinns face was filled with worry and insecurity. Sejuani had heard some rumors regarding the 'Emperor of Shurima'. Apparently he awoke from a deep slumber and wanted to restore his empire once more. Up until now Shurima had been a lose comglomerate of trading cites and small oasis villiges, but Azir tried to bring back the once glorious cities of the past. Sejuani had never been interested in the desert empire in the past, so she didn´t really know what that meant. Neverthelss it facinated her that Irelia wanted to go that far away, and Sejuani just decided to join her. She needed some change from the north anways, so she might as well see something of the world.

"But it´s also a very thrilling idea." Sejuani smilled. "Traveling to other countries is proving to be interesting to say the least. Alright, I travel there with you Irelia. Our next target is gonna be Bel´Zahn."

"Bel´Zhun." Irelia corrected her.

"Whatever. Quinn, surely you can lead us to a Demacian harbour which leads to Bel´Zhun."

"It is currently controlled by Noxus. "Quinn replied with a dead serious face. "No ships sail from demacian ports to noxian ones. Not since the Invasion of Ionia. I can however lead you to the noxian border where you can enter a noxian ship to Bel´Zhun, though I strongly advise against it."

"It´s settled then." Sejuani said." We´re leaving tomorrow morning."

"As you wish." Irelia seemed to be unimpressed by her decision. If she was happy about it she didn´t show it.

"Hang on, you can´t just decided that on a whim." Quinn was clearly unhappy with the result.

"You don´t have to guide us if you don´t want to Quinn. I´m sure Irelia and me will find the way alone too. But I suppose, that means, we would part ways already." Sejuani didn´t look particulary sad, but couldnt hide her disappointment. She had enjoyed the trip with Quinn so far, but she could understand that Quinn didn´t want to go into noxian territory.

"Uhh, god damn." She gritted her teeth. "Alright, I´ll join you, at least till you reach the border. If I leave you by yourself, who knows how many villages you two will annihilate."

"Ha, I don´t think you´ll be able to stop us from doing that." Sejuani joked.

The rest of the evening went by quickly as they talked about rumors of the 'Shuriman rebirth' and their plans for the next days. Quinn was still very sceptical about this 'adventure', and she didn´t hesitate to remind Irelia and Sejuani about that. Despite that it seemed that she did not want to leave the two to themselves. When the three of the went upstairs to their rooms midnight had already passed. Irelia wished the other two a good night and entered her room. Sejuani wanted to do the same but Quinn stoped her.

"Seju, thanks for today. I was happy you joined me."

"Seju?" Sejuani didn´t know how to react to Quinn. "Never heard that kind of nickname. And I would prefer to keep it that way."

Quinn gave her a faint smile."We´ll see about that. Well then, goodnight."

"See you tomorrow."

When Sejuani lay down she was very satisfied. Today had been a good day. Despite her difficulty of showing it, she had enjoyed keeping Quinn company. She now also had a new goal to reach and she didn´t feel alone anymore. Maybe this was the first step out of her misery? She feel asleept without any doubt for the frist time since the end of her 'reign'.


	8. Chapter 8

**Finally, Capter eight finished!**

 **This one took a bit longer due to rl stuff I needed to sort out. By the looks of it i won´t be able to pump out new chapter as quickly as before in the near future. I hope you still like it.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

As the morning came the group readied themselves to head out. They had planed to eat a small breakfast and leave after that. But it was pouring outside so they were not really in high spirits. Rain had been a rarity in Freljord and Sejuai hated to get soaked in her clothes. Nevertheless the trio went to the stables when they had finished their meal. The equerry was already up and tending some of the military horses. He was a small man with long gray hair, arround fity to sity years old. He didn´t look as someone who was part of the army. As the three women approached he greeted them with a tired but earnest smile.

"You´re the people general Ironcrawler told me about. I´ve already readied up 'Hope', you can head right out. Be careful with your boar though, horses don´t like things they don´t know. Espeacially if they´re that big and dangerous."

Sejuani gazed upon the man with fierce eyes. "I´ll think we´ll manage. Thanks for the warning."

"So how´re we gonna travel now?" Quinn looked at her companions with questioning look. "We haven´t discussed that yesterday."

Sejuani rolled her eyes as if that question was the dumbest Quinn could have ever asked. "You two obviously will use the horse. I follow you with Bristle." Burdening her mount and trusted friend was one of the things Sejuani didn´t want at all.

Quinn smirked at the Freljordian. "You know that´s not gonna work. The real question is who is gonna take the horse and who rides with you." Sejuani wanted reply something in defence of her postion but a look at Irelia confirmed to her that it was pointless. "Fine..."

After a short but meaningless debate, Quinn chose to ride with Sejuani. Mildly satisfied the trio left the stables and prepared to set out. They didn´t want to get soaked right away so they waited half an hour to see if the rain would let up. But the weather stayed cold and wet so they started their journey anways. To Sejuanis surprise Bristle wasn´t displeased as Quinn as well as herself mounted on his back, he really seemed to like the Demacian.

* * *

The next days passed by uneventful. To Sejuani´s discontent the map that she had bought proved to be useless, Quinn took one short look at it and chucked it out right away. The weather was mostly wet and cold but still warmer compared to the Freljord. The landscape changed drastically as the deep woods gave way to a more agricultural focused enviroment. The density of towns and cities also grew with each day. But the farther southeast they traveled the more 'militarized' the villages became. In each one at least one batallion of infantry was stationed. Quinn explained that the reason was the proximity to the noxian border. Furthermore, there had been a dramatic coup in the Noxian Empire. The new leadership propagated a even more agressive policy. Since then the country had massively expanded into other regions like Shurima and Ionia. It even threatened powerful city-states such as Palclyff, Piltover or even the Bilgerwater Union. Noxus had always been the rival of Demacia and although the two countries were not always at war with each other, skirmishes were no rarity. So the towns at the border to their rivaling country were always prepared should the other side try something. Sejuani also noticed that Quinn became more nervous the closer they came to Noxus. She couldn´t really blame her for that though, after all she was not military and as such not used to fights and skirmishes. Surviving in the wild or in the war were two fundametaly different things. However, Sejuani learned about Quinn´s past. She had been born in Uwendale, a rural town in the northeast of Demacia. Together with her brother, Caleb, she had wanted to join the military and fight for their country. When they were about 15 years old her brother died when he protected Quinn and a hunting party from a giant tusker. Quinn didn´t say much about what exacly happened and her eyes looked somewhat absent. One year later she meet Valor during a visit to her brothers grave. The exact same animal attacked her but Quinn managed to barely bring it down with the help of an eagle, that mysteriously appeared to save her. Quinn chose to give him the name 'Valor' as he helped her against an animal much bigger than himself. Since then they had traveled numerous times trough Demacia, despite Quinn still being very young. Sejunai had not thought that Quinn had such a tragic past, after all she almost always seemed pretty cheerful and happy.

After about a week since they left Fossbarrow, the three women reached on of the borderoutposts. The capital had built them to ensure that Noxus had no chance of a blitz-invasion. Each of the outposts was equipped to warn the capital and the surrounding towns. A large tower made up the core of the military facility. On top of it was a pile of wood, probably serving as a signalfire. Additionally there were some stables and the barracks. Sejuani reckoned that the garison was about 50 to 60 men with at least five horses. 200 meters before they reached the watchpost a guard halted them, with weapons drawn.

"Stop right there. It is dangerous for civilians to cross the border." His armor looked very differntly from the ones Sejuani had seen in Fossbarrow or the other towns. I shone in a bright golden colour and his helmet had the shape of a lion´s head. His shield showed the winged sword of Demacia but also another emblem. There was also a crest with a rose surrounded by a circle. It probably had something to do with aristocracy, but Sejuani had not bothered to learn anything about that. "I´d advise you turn back. There was a sighting of a noxian patrol two days ago. Although Demcacia is not at war with Noxus right now it is not considered safe as the tension between both nations are very high."

Quinn, sitting behind Sejuani, adressed the guard. "These two here are not Demacian citizens, so they shouldn´t have any trouble traveling through noxian territory. As for me, it´s not the frist time I´ve crossed the border, and I´m not exactly a civilian either."

"Regarding the current political state it´s still a high risk. The Captial has decided to suspend all traffic toward Noxus, I can not let you pass. If you insist though, you can talk to the Garrison-Commander, but I doubt she will make an exception." Although his words were not, the guard sounded surprisingly sorry. After all the only thing he did was follow his duty.

"We´ll like to take up this opportunity." Quinn replied a smirk apearing on her face. "I´m sure we will reach an agreement with your superior." Sejuani halted 'How can she be so sure? She is not even part of the military.' But she probably had an ace up her sleeve.

"Well then, follow me, but do not expect any hospitality. The troops are on high alert right now." The guard turned arround and headed for the military base. The three women followed him on their mounts. The whole group remained silent until they reached the tower. The buildings surrounding it were crowded with soldiers of different ranks. Quinn had told Sejuani that the army was very hierarcially structured. Most of the Infantry units had the rank of 'private', this was the lowest possible rank. After that there was the coporal, he commanded a 'Unit', consisting of 20 soldiers. The highest possible rank for non-aristoracy was Lieutenant. He was in charge of five Units and often times possessed a personal horse. The other ranks, like General, were restricted to aristocrazy or special forces. When Sejuani asked how Quinn knew all this she explained that military service was mandatory in Demacia. But Quinn had left after the minimum service, without her brother it just didn´t feel right.

The soldier led them to the door of the watchtower, guarded by a warrior, but his armor showed his lesser rank. "These people wish to speak to the Garrison-Commander."

"The Commander is a busy person. Only one of them may enter." The soldiers answered with a stern face. He clearly wasn´t happy with the arrival of the 'civilians'.

Quinn turned to Irelia and Sejuani. "Let me do it. I´m a Demacian and he´ll more likely agree if he talks with a countryman." Sejuani noded and Irelia seemed pleased as well. The Soldier gave Quinn a short look. "Enter."

Quinn passed through the door which led to a stairway.

The stairs were made out of marble and small windows seamed the wall. Quinn was a bit nervous. She knew that whoever was in charge of the outpost had probably gotten a message from the captial, but she still felt her heart racing. Quinn had written one to Xin Zhao a few days back, were she decribed their likely path and the plans they had. Getting Sejuani and Irelia out of Demacia wasn´t a bad thing. Then they couldn´t get her into trouble with the locals again. But Quinn hated being outside of her home. She had been to Freljord and Noxus before but she vastly prefered Demacia over both of them. After a few moments Quinn and her company reached an oaken door in the wall leading to the center of the tower. The guard who had followed her passed her and knocked three times.

"Yes, enter." The voice of a woman answered. The Soldier opened the door and signaled Quinn to follow him. She did as told and walked into a small room. The walls were covered with different maps of Valoran in variuos sizes. In the center of the commander´s quarter stood a giant table. Leaning over it was a woman Quinn knew all too well. She had a scale-riddled skin and wore a red armor. Her eye´s burned like fire giving away her non human origins."Commander" The soldier gave a short salute. "This woman wishes to cross the border and insisted to talk to you about permission." The soldier introduced Quinn with a wink of his hand. The Commander looked up from the table shooting a testing look at Quinn. "Thanks Gideon. Leave us please." The Soldier saluted and left the room.

"Quinn Featherstorm, traveling through the shithole that is my Garrison." The woman reached out her hand with a serious look. Quinn shook her hand and returned the gaze to the Commander. A smirk formed on her face and she couldn´t contain herself any longer. "It´s good to see you again, it´s been too long." She pulled Quinn in for a hug.

"I´m also happy to see you Shyvana." Quinn pated the back of the Half-Dragon. Shyvana was one of Quinn´s oldest friends in the army. Both were somewhat of outcasts among all the nobilty that inhabited the higher ranks. Shyvana had helped Jarven IV. in a quest once and was appointed to be a royal eliteguard. Most of the nobles considered Quinn and Shyvana to be filthy commoners and didn´t show them much respect. It was only natural that both became friends after these similarities.

"I´ve recieved the letter from the capital yesterday." Shyvana couldn´t hide a grin. "Playing babysitter for a Freljordian princess now, huh?"

"Something like that." Quinn responded. "More like keeping her and her Ionian friend out of trouble. But I have to say it´s a nice change of pace from the usual tasks. More importanly though, why are you here? Is the situation that dire?"

"Yes, unfortunatly so. The capital expects a invasion of Demacia and also thinks that the armstrice in Ionian will break soon. There are too many signs that indicate a Noxian invasion, we can not stand idle any longer. Jarven has dispatched a bunch of Generals to the borders and is preapring the grand army. It looks like he wants to make an preemptive strike."

"That´s really bad news. And here I thought the world was turning good for once. Sejuani seems to have abandoned her dreams of conquest. It looks more like she is trying to find a new purpose. But oh well, Noxus is always in for a surprise." Quinn was seriously concerned by Shyvana´s statement. A war would change everything.

"You´re gonna miss all the fun while your gone. Why are you even bothering with her anymore, just kill her and be done with it."

"That´s what I thought at frist too. But now I really enjoy her company. She is not the villain everybody makes her out to be."

Shyvana´s face tourned dead serious. "Quinn, she is still an enemy to Demacia. You better not forget who your loyalty belongs to in your journey."

"My loyalty to Demaica will never waver, you can be sure of that. I just think that maybe we were too quick too judge about her." Quinn never even thought about betraying the captial even if they sometimes made questionable decisions.

"Well that´s good then. You can cross the border whenever you want. Just be warned that there are many noxian patrols out there. I´ve already lost five men in the last week. If you really want to head for Shurima, Glorft will be your next destination. There are frequent fleets of merchants sailing towards Bel´Zhun. Note however that Azir is curently in a crusade to purge the noxian influence from Shurima, so you better be careful." Shyvana handed her a parchment with her signature. "This will convince the guards, that you have my permission."

"Thanks Shyvana, I hope we´ll see each other again soon. Hopefully the world doesn´t look that bad when that happens."

"Don´t you dare die on me Quinn. Can´t be the only commoner amongst all these nobles." Shyvana gave her a smile.

"Ha, don´t you worry, I can watch out for myself. And if worst comes to worst I still have a maniac and a former warleader at my side." Quinn headed for the door.

"I can imagine that." A smirk appeared on the Half-Dragon´s face.

"One thing however, I don´t know how often I´ll be able to send a message to the capital."

"Yeah, we´re aware of that, if you´re visiting larger cities just be sure to check in at the Demacian embassy. They´re able to inform us." Shyvana followed her and gave Quinn one last hug before closing the door behind her.

* * *

Quinn returned with a pleased face. Judging by the parchement in Quinn´s hands, it looked like she had been successful. Sejuani wasn´t really surprised at that, she had already thought that Quinn would manage the situation. The Crossbowwoman strolled over to Irelia and Sejuani and waved with the piece of paper in her hands.

"We´re ready to cross the border!"

"So you´re going with us? You didn´t look that thrilled to leave Demacia a few days ago."

"Well, may be a nice change of scenery. I´ve been in Noxus before, the view of most towns is just too depressing. But Shurima sounds very interesting, this is why I thought I just tag along."

Irelia mustered Quinn with a suspicious face. "'A change of Scenery' huh? Well, not that I really care." She didn´t seem pleased in the slightest way, that Quinn was accompaning them further. Sejuani knew that their relationship was in pretty bad shape, but she hoped that was going to change in time.

The three of them rested another hour at the outpost before heading out again. It was late afternoon when they left the military facility and crossed into noxian territory. Quinn explained that the border between the two countries was always subject to change, because neither side wanted to step down in any disputes. Only recently the capital had decided to built the outposts to ensure the safety of the bordertowns. They camped later than usual and only lit a small campfire. They wanted to attract as little attention as possible. Quinn also send Valor out to scout the area to prevent bad surprises. After eating dinner Irelia took the frist watch so Sejuani and Quinn could rest. The Freljordian fechted some of her furs and noticed that Bristle was already asleept. Exhausted she laid herself against her mount. Quinn came strolling towards her, a smile on her face.

"Exploiting your friends warmth huh?"

Sejuani put up a smirk. "It´s a give-and-take-realtionship. I just take more than I give. But he is doesn´t mind, because he is happy about what he gets. Isn´t it the same with you and Valor?"

"I try to not let it be that way. But sometimes it happens. Mind if I sit down?"

Sejuani pointed at the place beside her. "Fell free to." Quinn placed herself right next to the Freljordian and looked up into the night sky.

"They seem so far away, yet I feel at ease just watching them." Sejuani followed her gaze. The sky was filled with stars, glowing ever so slightly against the darkness that surrounded them.

"My father always said, every star, no matter how faint it glows, is an anchester watching over us. Protecting our hopes and dreams."

"You never said anything about your father, was he your mentor?"

Sejuani hasitated. She wanted to keep her past from Quinn, yet she had blurted out something stupid. But strangely she didn´t feel regret, it was quite the opposite actually. Quinn seemed to genuinely care about Sejuani and her problems.

"My father was a good man, but he wasn´t strong enough to survive. Strength is the only thing that lets you rule and live. Kindness has not place in a land like the Freljord."

Quinn looked down straight into Sejuanis eyes. Her gaze was filled with sadness. "What happened to your father?"

"It´s nothing worth knowing. He wasn´t prepared for what happened and thus he lost everything." She tried to evade the subject. "You´re better off if I don´t tell you."

"But I want to know. I wanna hear what happenend...that made you the woman you´re today." Her voice sounded honest and Sejuani didn´t find another argument in her head to deny the Demacian.

"My father was the leader of the tribe I lived in my childhood. He always put the needs of others above his own and he was admired for that. For me he was the most important person that existed."

"But that didn´t last, did it?"

"Our tribe was attacked by barbarians. A lot of people were killed and as the village surrendered, they killed my father. There was nothing I could do because I was too weak. The marauders took me with them, needing new recruits to fill their ranks. In time my anger towards them wayned, they showed me that with enough strength you´re able to protect the things you want and take what you need."

"You didn´t take revenge? They destroyed your old life."

"They did, but only because we had not the strength to protect it. I learned the harsh truth of the world. If you can´t protect what you love, you´re not worthy of keeping it. I despised my fathers killer for some time, but that changed as I grew older. He trained me to be able to fight and lead." She couldn´t look Quinn in the eyes while speaking, so she focused on the night sky instead. In the Winter´s Claw only a handful of soldiers had known her story. And she never told anyone she knew in such detail.

"Then how come you became leader of the Winter´s Claw?" A yawn escaped Quinn´s mouth, seems like she was also very tired.

"My mentor himself became weak. He fell in love with a woman from a clan we raided, and despite her being weak and of no use to the clan he took her with him. I couldn´t accept such an act of treason, he went against his own policy of 'Only the strong get to survive'. I rallied a few warrior who respected me and challenged him in a duell. He was an exquisite foe but I was better. When he laid before me in the snow he plead for his life like coward. It gave me no pleasure but it had to be done. After that-..."

Suddenly Sejuani felt a light bump at her shoulder. She turned to Quinn and noticed that the Demacian was asleept, her body leaning against Sejuani´s. Her tiredness got the better of her. Although she didn´t finish the story of her past Sejuani felt at ease after telling it to Quinn. Sometimes it wasn´t so bad to had people that listened to you, even only for a short while. To her own surprise she didn´t mind Quinn sleeping beside her, there was something special about the crossbowwoman. Sejuani´s gaze returned to the stary sky and her thoughts wandered off. But a sudden screech from Valor startled her. Alarmed that the eagle had probably seen something dangerous Sejuani turned to Quinn who slowly opened her eyes.

* * *

Quinn was torn from sleep. A loud screech form Valor had awoken her. As she lifted her eyelid and life returned to her body, she noticed she leaned against something. Quinn rotated her head and looked right into the blue eye´s of a certain Freljordian. In a split-second she realized what had she had done and instantly backed off.

"Uhm... Sorry... I didn´t mean to... I mean, I was just..." Quinn couldn´t even put up a reasonable answer. Damn it why did she have to fall asleept when Sejuani just opened up a bit. Quinn hated herself for what she had just done.

But Sejuani didn´t seem to be bothered by it at all. She gave Quinn a stern look. "We´ve got more important issues right now. Your feathery friend has probably spotted something." Quinn also noticed Irelia walking towards them. She probaly heard Valor as well.

"What happened?" Although she seemed concerned her voice didn´t even have a trace of worry in it.

Quinn searched the sky for her companion and sighted him about 50 meters away, slowly approaching his partner. She stood up in hurry and held up her arm for Valor to land. A few moments later the eagle gripped the leather of her armguard and greeted his master. He let out two short screeches. Quinn knew what that meant, exactly what she thought.

"Noxians, probably a patrol. Put out the fire, we need to lay low for a while. It´s unlikely that they´ll spot us in the drak if we just hide."

"Noxians?" The tone in Irelias voice had changed drastically and Quinn saw the orb at her side begining to glow in a dark red fashion.

"Irelia, we don´t need to fight them. It´ll save us much trouble to just hide and let them pass." This was definetly not a fight that was necessary.

Sejuani noded. "Agreed, we just hunker down for a while. We don´t need more problems than we already have."

"No, I´ll gladly strike them down. Their lifes are not allowed to go on. All that is noxian must perish."

Sejuani´s face grew dark. "Don´t." Quinn had never heard Sejuani speak like that before. In her voice lay nothing but authority and it sounded more like a thread than a command. Before Sejuani could stop the Ionian though, she had already rushed off, her mystical weapon flying by her side.


	9. Chapter 9

**The next chapter is done!**

 **I hope you like the direction where the story is going. Feedback and Suggestions are welcome as always.  
**

 **Enjoy**

* * *

'I´m gonna kill her for this, I swear!' Sejuani hastely took her weapons and woke up Bristle to follow the Ionian. She always seemed so collected, that´s why Sejuani thought that it took a bit more to lure out Irelia´s 'bad side'. But the presence of a Noxian Patrol was enough to let her forget any safety. 'Damn, I was just having a moment, can´t these noxian scrubs just disappear.' Quinn was already on her way to catch up on Irelia, who just stormed in the direction Valor had returned from. A cry through the night heralded the Ionain´s clash with the patrol. Sejuani sprinted right behind Quinn through the underwood. In her hurry she recieved some bruises from the branches in her way.

After about a minute, they emerged form the woods onto the street they had travelled on ealier. Both were greeted by a bloodied body torn into pieces of various sizes. Irelia was already engaged with a dozen soldiers. They looked a lot different from the demacian infantry units Sejuani had wittnessed. Armoured in black steel plates and equipped with long halberds and swords, they tried to keep the single Ionian woman at bay. One man, if you could call him that, stood out however. He was almost double the size of the others and his skin looked grayish, like he was not really a human. In the place of his jaw a metal piece was embed in his face and the rest of his body was also argumented with different parts of iron. He wielded a gaint axe as a weapon and almost no armor that wasn´t directly connected with his flesh. The eyes glowed in a dangerous red and his grimace made him look like a maniac.

Determined to bring this beast of a man down, Quinn charged forward while sending a hail of bolts in his direction. Their foes now also realized the appearance of the 'reinforcements' and four of the soldiers immediatly turned to face Sejuani. With her flail in one hand and the sword in the other Sejuani braced herself for the fight. The first one stepped forward, wielding his blade above his head to bring it down on the Freljordian. But he was too slow, Sejuani had anticipated an opening like that and swung her flail with all her might towards her opponent. The tip of the weapon connected with the chest plate and just broke it. Her foe, surpirsed by the sudden impact, was knocked back and blood spilled from the wound that Sejuani had inflicted upon him. The rest of her adversaries hasitated for a moment after Sejuani´s display of strength. But it didn´t take long for them to summon their courage for another attack. This time two of them attacked her at once, one armed with a halberd and the other with sword and shield. Sejuani managed to deflect the blow of the sword with her own and barely dodged the halberd of the other one. But she could not evade the following shield bash. It crashed into her shoulder and Sejuani sumbled back a few steps.

Before her foes could press their advantage however, two of them were overrun by a giant boar. 'Jeez, he´s taken his sweet time to arrive.' The last remaining one standing before her and her mount made an attempt to retreat back to the others, but Sejuani lunged forward, striking directly through his heart with her blade. Freed of her adversaries Sejuani glanced arround to see how the others were doing. Irelia looked exactly the same as in Fellton, dancing around her enemies while her baldes whirled arround her slicing her opponents and deflecting their blows. She looked like in trance, her eye´s burning with fury. Quinn however had serrious issues against the juggernaut. She jumped arround to dodge his attacks but none of her bolts seemed to have any effect on him. Valor tried to assist her by attacking the head of her foe again and again, but it had little effect on him.

"COWAAAARD! Face me!" The Behemoth shouted as he charged at the crossbowwoman at inhuman speed, his arm ready to smash her. Quinn evaded the attack und answered with a flurry of arrows. He swung his axe but Quinn dashed to the side. Her foe however, had forseen her reaction and managed to hit a kick with his boot. A loud scream echoed through the night. While not exactly muscular, Quinn wasn´t weak, but the hit send her straight to the ground and let her gasping for air. "Is this what passes for war?! Weaklings!" The giant warrior towered above her and grabed Quinn by her throat, leaving her no room to breathe. He lifted her up with ease, like she was little more than a mouse, a nuissance to get out of his way. Quinn tried to fight back, using all her strength available. But her struggle was in vain as her opponent was many times stronger than her.

Sejuani hurried to get to the Demacian´s side. "Bristle, come on, time to bring this monster down." She pointed at the giant and her companion grunted angrily in response. Knowing that she had not chance on foot she mounted Bristle and prepared to attack. But it was too late. Quinn´s body was smashed against a tree at the side of the road and an unhealthy sounding crack followed. Lifeless her body stumbled to the ground.

The thoughts of yet again having lost someone she was 'kind of' responsible for raced through Sejuani´s head. But there was also a sting in her heart, which she had only felt when she had seen her father getting executed. For the moment she brushed these thoughts aside and went to face the juggernaut herself. Bristle started running and steadily gained velocity. Her foe had noticed her incoming attack and braced for the impact of her boar. Bristle leaped a short moment before the two collided, raising his head so his tusks would impale his traget. Sejuani swung her flail at her enemey´s face to end their duel in one strike.

Sejuani felt the force of the impact and saw her weapon miss it´s mark. The shock of their collision had shaken her too much. But to her surprise her opponent could widstand her attack. His face, displaying nothing but anger and fury, looked directly at her. He grabed both of Bristle´s tusks and hurled the boar, together with Sejuani, away. Sejuani crashed ruggedly into the dirt, but immediately picked herself up to defend herself. Her mount had landed on his side with a screech. Sejuani had never heard Bristle like that. But she had also never seen a creature that could brush off a charge from her boar like that. Although the tusks had pierced his skin and dark red blood spilled from his wound he didn´t seem to care in the slightest about that. Instead the behemoth approached, his giant axe in his hands, to end their battle. 'Seems like its time for the last resort.' Sejuani dived for one of Bristles saddle bags. She pulled out her True-Ice bola and hurled it at her enemy. "Here´s a gift from the Freljord!" He didn´t even try do dodge it and it connected with one of his legs. Instanly, cold ice crept up from the spot of the impact. Quickly covering the whole body of the juggernaut who struggled to free himself in vain. After about five seconds her adversary stood before her, frozen solid.

Sejuani pushed herself up and looked for Irelia. She saw her before the last noxian standing impaled by her weapon. Suddenly her enemy burst in shreds and her blades returned to her side. The Freljordian hurried to Quinn´s side. Valor was already resting at her shoulder, trying to wake her up as if she was just sleeping. He had helplessly watched as his companion was defeated by the juggernaut, ingnoring all of the birds attacks. Sejuani was relieved when she felt a faint pulse at her throat. At least Quinn wasn´t dead just yet. But her body was in a horrible condition, one of her arms twisted in an ungly fashion and blood running over her face. It would take some time, or magic, to heal such injuries. Bristle had gotten up too and nugded the Demacian with his nose, but there was no reaction at all.

Sejuani noticed Irelia approaching, her bloodlust seemed to have worn off. 'She´s at fault for this mess. If she just controlled herself better, then...' Sejuani clenched her fists and rose to stand before the Ionian. She could see regret and guilt in her eyes.

"I´m sorry I´ve again-"

Irelia was interrupted by a blow of Sejuani´s fist to her stomach, followed immediately by another one to her cheek. Irelia, surprised by the sudden attack, fell to the floor and Sejuani sat on top of her, her fists still clenched and ready to smash Irelia´s head in.

"You´ve almost gotten us all killed. Quinn may even die, just because you went on your little killingspree." Another strike hit Irelia in the face. But she didn´t even try to defend herself. "I don´t know what exactly you´ve experienced in the war but don´t get us into danger because of it. If you wanna go on a crusade against Noxus, go ahead, I won´t stop you. But if you continue to travel with us, or me if it goes bad, get your shit together." Blood ran over the Ionian´s face as the strikes had been quite powerful.

Irelia looked at Sejuani her eye´s still displaying regret, but there was also something else. "You´re right. It´s all my fault, my fault alone. It´s the exactly as that day. It´s never been the same since then."

"What the fuck are you on about. This isn´t about the past, it´s about now. Quinn is on the verge of death and all you think about is the past?" Sejuani noticed that there was something she didn´t know about Irelia yet. 'But this is irrelevant now. All that matters is that she is responsible for all this shit.'

"It was about two years ago." Irelia continued regardless of Sejuani´s comment. "It was at the defence of Placidium. It was going to be our last stand. The last battle against Noxus. But I refused to accept the defeat. Noxus killed my family, my friends, my comrades and destroyed everything that was important to me. Filled with rage I led my unit in a reckless assault. But we were amushed and attacked by noxian necromancers. They inflicted a curse upon us. The sanity was slowly fading away as nothing but bloodlust took over. My men started to slaugther everything, regardless of alliegence. I managed to withstand long enough to get out of this nightmare. To save my life I melted my soul with that of the weapon, corputing it in my stead. But it was more of a method to stall for time. Eventually I will succumb to the demon that is now inside me and my weapon. It was all my fault, every single one of these soldiers had trusted me with his life, but instead I just lead them straight to their death. This quest is my redemption as well as my cure." Sejuani had already prepared to hit her again, but as she heard what Irelia had witnessed she slowly put her hand down. She saw Irelia´s eyes getting wet. She was not the only one who had experienced hardship and pain, Quinn and Irelia also had their burden to carry. She now noticed how similar the three of them were. No one of them had a place they could call home at the moment. Sejuani stood up and helped the Ionian to get on her feet again.

"Sorry, I kinda just lost control there for a moment. But seriously, if you can´t keep yourself under control if we´re in noxian territory I can´t let you travel with me or Quinn." The fear of losing Quinn still lingered within her.

"You have every right to be upset, but I suggest we leave that conversation for later, when Quinn is safe and sound." Irelia had immediately returned to her calm and composed self. Together they hauled the Demacian onto Bristle´s back, Valor always staying by her side. Irelia eyed the frozen statue of the juggernaut with interest. "So, how did you manage to freeze this 'thing' into a statue?"

"It´s my True-Ice bola. If I throw it at anything with enough force it releases it´s magical energy, covering the target in ice. It slowly restores it´s power by draining the cold of the air. It´ll take a few days, considering it´s not very cold arround here."

"And how long will he be frozen, or is he dead? Is it really safe to camp in this area tonight."

"Normal humans are at least frozen for a whole day and a night. We should be safe tonight. It doesn´t kill them, they don´t even remeber anything while being frozen, I´ve often used it to captivate hostages or traitors. I can tell you more about it in the camp if you want, for now lets go back and help Quinn."

Sejuani collected her bola and they returned to the campsite to tend to Quinn and her injuries. They were quiet on the whole way to their camp. Sejuani fetched some of her furs and covered Quinn in them, after she patched up the worst injuries Quinn had gotten. Her body was riddled with bruises and the skin on her back had changed colour to an unhealthy blue because of them. Sejuani watched her chest slowly rising and falling again, it seemed that she was going to be alright. Meanwhile Irelia reignited the campfire and prepared something to eat. Not a word was dropped when they ate their meal and stared into the fire. To Sejuani the silence was unbearable and soothing at the same time. Tired and exhausted, both women didn´t bother to keep watch that night.

* * *

The dew of the morning still lay over the grass as Sejuani awoke. Under the pain in her shoulder and her waist she pushed herself up and glanced arround. Irelia as well as Bristle and Hope were still in the land of dreams it seemed. Valor however was at Quinn´s side, he probabaly didn´t even sleep one minute this night. As the Fury of the North approached his master, Valor took an intruiged look at her.

"Sorry Valor, I wasn´t fast enough yesterday. I shouldn´t have left her to fight this giant Juggernaut alone in the frist place." Sejuani felt a bit stupid talking to the eagle at first, but she did the same with Bristle all the time. Over the years she had learned to understand her mount through his grunts and facial expressions. Valor still stared at her, indifferent about her statement. Only now Sejuani noticed something was off about herself. She had been way too emotional yesterday. Ever since she had talked with Quinn, to be exact. Sejuani bit her lip, she knew exactly what her feelings were. She also knew that she could not allow herself to act upon them. Quinn was a companion, an ally in her travels, but nothing more. She shouldn´t make it anymore complicated by changing their relationship to something else. Sejuani remained a few more moments at Quinn´s side before preparing for continuing their journey. A bit later, Irelia also awoke. Without even having breakfast they set out again. Both women didn´t want to stay in Noxus any longer than they needed to. Their plan was to enter a merchant ship in Glorft, a small city at the shore. It was about two weeks of travel until there. Quinn lay infront of Sejuani´s saddle, still out of it.

Until they reached Glorf nothing major happened. They galloped all the way and rarely took rests, after only one week the walls of Glorft appeared on the Horizon. Quinn was unconscious most of the time. When she was awake however she only muttered unintelliable stuff. Without her, there was barely any conversation going on. While Sejuani wanted to know more about Irelia, she also didn´t want to force her questions onto her. She knew that she would find out eventually, but Irelia would decide when it was time for it. It seemed that Irelia was on the same page as her as she didn´t pry for information either.

Glorft looked considerable different from any demacian town they had visited. The walls were pitch black and many of the watchtowers were destroyed or damaged. The Empire had probably not bothered to repair them when they had conquered the city. Surrounding the walls there was a ring of wooden stakes and many guards patroled on said walls. But contrary to the demacian cities, they could enter the city without any guards stopping them. Sejuani and Irelia quickly found a small inn near the harbour of the town. Bristle and Hope stayed at the barn beside it. They had not planned to even stay one night in Glorft, but after a short discussion they had decided to stay at least two days in the city, to see if Quinn was back on her feet again.

Luckly Sejuani still had her goldcoins. Sejuani had assumed, that it would have made them very suspicious if they had paid in demacian currency. After they had brought Quinn to one of their rooms, they had some food down at the inn. The dinner was some meat, presumably rabbit, with wheat porridge. It was especially tasty but better than Sejuani had thought. The ale was quite enjoyable too. Since they had arrived in the city Sejuani had noticed that Irelia was behaving very stiff and tried to avoid any contact with the people. It seemed to be very hard for her to fight the voice inside her, when there was something related to Noxus.

"You seem to be very stressed. Is it really that bad?" Sejuani´s curiosity was just too overwhelming at this point.

"You have no idea...I would rather hunger for a week straight, than to spend one night in this shithole." While Irelia said that, she gritted her teeth. This day had obviously taken a heavy toll on her. It was completly different form her usual calm and collected self.

"If we´re lucky, Quinn will be better tomorrow. She was awake this morning and seemed better than before. If you insist, we can also change plans and just sail tomorrow."

"It´s really tempting, but it will be bad for Quinn´s recovery. I don´t know how she reactes to being on a ship."

"She is thougher than you think. After all she survived that smash." Sejuani smirked. After she had seen what happened to her she had already thought that Quinn was dead.

"You´re right about that. But it´s also my fault that she is in this condition in the frist place." Sejuani had long noticed that her ourbursts made her feel more guilty than Sejuani had ever imagined. Her indifferent mask had crumbled in the last few days and Sejuani had constantly seen sorrow and regret in Irelia´s eyes.

"Really though, you look like shit. I´ll see if we can find a ship that sails tomorrow."

"Thanks I really appreaciate that." Irelia gulped down the rest of her meal. "Sorry, but I´m going to bed already. It´s just too stressing for me to stay herewith these...people." She almost spited the last words out.

"Sure, I´m not going to stay up late either. Good night, Irelia." The Ionian stood up and made her way to the rooms.

Sejuani remained at the bar for another hour or so. She thought about the things that had happened in the last month, and the things that were likley going to happen. Irelia searched for a cure in the shuriman captial. If she was successful, she would likley want to return to Ionia again. Sejuani had not yet decided how to continue at that point, but it was quite a travel until there, so she had sometime to think about it. As for Quinn, Sejuani didn´t know what she would do next. To be honest she wasn´t even sure why she had tagged along in the first place. She seemed like a typical Demacian, valueing justice and honesty more than anyone Sejuani had known. Yet she agreed to travel with them to Noxus, the archenemy of Demacia, and even further to Shurima. Maybe the lust for adventure had gripped her, but maybe there was something else.

When Sejuani returned to her room, she noticed Irelia had taken the one-bed room. So she was left with Quinn. Sejuani opened the door quietly and snuck in. There was no need to wake Quinn up. But she heard a familiar voice as soon as she had closed the door.

"No...Caleb...it´s...not safe." Quinn was again muttering things in her sleep. "Don´t..."

Sejuani sneaked to her bed and put her armor down. She covered herself with the blanked and quickly fell to sleep.

* * *

It was quite early in the morning when Sejuani awoke. It was still pretty dark outside and Sejuani heard the sound of raindrops clashing against the window. Sejuani readied herself up and headed to the harbor of the city. Dispite the hour the people were already hard at work. Dozens of fishing boats were already on their way to the ocean. The bigger merchant ships were filled with all kinds of cargo at the same time. Sejuani decided to go for one of the smaller ones. Not so rich traders were often more attracted to sources of additional money. The frist few tries were very disappointing as all of the traders were dissatisfied with the amount she offered. Most of them also didn´t want a boar on their ship under any circumstances. The rain made the situation even worse and Sejuani was in a really bad mood.

Soon the only ship left was a small dogger. It looked pretty run down, the sails partly torn and the figurehead was pitch black, probly due to a fire. The captain seemed to be a small but muscular man. A tattered hat decorated his head and one of his eyes was covered with a bandage. Dried blood under it revealed that the wound was probably still very new. As the Freljordian approached the sailsman turned toward her looking upon her suspicously with his healthy eye.

"What yer want, eh?" Well he was getting right to the point.

"Me and my companions wish to travel to Bel´Zhun and search a boat for our travel."

"We´ll I indeed intend to go for Bel´zen. But it´ll cost yer a coin or two." A smile appeared and showed his darkened teeth.

"I didn´t expect anything else. Two gold coins for me, my two comrades, a boar, a horse and an eagle." Sejuani knew that it was an unreasonable price, but that was all she had left. Silverswords were probably not a valid option.

"Yer got to be kidin me. That´s at least three if not more. And tha´s not counting supplies and all that." He shook his head to underline his displeasure.

"I´m affraid that´s all I can give to you." Sejuani gave him a stern face. This guy was her last hope, she couldn´t return to Irelia and just say, 'Sorry were not sailing.' Well there was one last thing she could offer him. "I can offer you additional silverswords though. But I know there not really worth anything here."

The Captain raised an eyebrow under her statement. "Silverswords, eh? Well I´m not picky in what yer pay me. As long as tha price is good enough I´m in."

Sejuani was very relieved when she heard is response but teid not to show it. He would probably try to raise the 'fee' if he knew how dire their situation was. "Two goldcoins and ten sliverswords, how does that sound."

"Make it twelve and you´re on board." He reached for Sejuani´s hand. She shook his hand and a with a smirk formed on his face. "We´re sailing today in the afternoon. Be sure to bring all yer friends, because I wont wait for anyone." Sejuani noded in agreement, the continuation of their travel was secured. She handed him the money and headed back to the inn.

When Sejuani returned to the Inn there was a surprise waiting for her. Irelia as well as Quinn sat at the bar and were having breakfast. Quinn still looked very absent and tired.

"Morning." Sejuani greeted them. While she was very happy that Quinn was on her feet again, she tried her best not to show it.

"Good, Morning." Irelia answered with a resereved tone. Apperantly she had gotten somewhat used to the enviroment, as she didn´t seems as tensed up as yesterday.

"You feeling better Quinn?"

"I´m alright, but my arm still hurts. On top of that I don´t even remember what happenend during the fight. The last thing in my memory is..." She suddenly fell silent and blushed a bit. "...us following Irelia."

"Well, that´ll come back in time. More importantly, I´ve secured a spot on a merchant shit, we´re sailing in the afternoon. Sounds good to you?"

Both women noded and Sejuani joined them in their meal. They talked about various things concerning their journey and stayed at the inn for several hours. When the sun rose to her zenith, the three of them headed for the harbor to board the ship for Bel´Zhun.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello again and happy new year 2018!**

 **I know I´ve kept you waiting on this one. The days before Chrismas were quite stressful and was too lazy to write during the holydays and new year. But I´ve at least finshed it now and hope you like it. Feedback is welcome as always!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Quinn breathed in the fresh and cold sea-air. The smell of salt and fish filled her lungs. It was like medicine for her brain. When she had awoken this morning, she had suffered under a severe headache. She did not remember anything of the fight against the juggernaut. Sejuani had told her how it ended. 'Another great move by Quinn, charging into an opponent twice her size.' she had thought. Quinn had always been a little reckless in fights. Some of her superiors had scolded her for it and prognosticated a short life for her. Her disregard for her own life had also cost Caleb his future. At least that what Quinn always told herself. And although it would have made things easier for Quinn´s mission if Irelia and Sejuani too had died in this encounter, she was happy that this was not the case. Quinn had grown fond of both her companions, maybe too fond of one of them. Quinn had not forgotten the scene that had played out right before their little skirmish. Right now she didn´t feel regret, but she didn´t know how to face the Freljordian. Quinn had always assumed she was straight, although it looked like she had been wrong. This was not her first time in love of course, when Quinn was promoted to ranger by Garen Crownguard, she instantly fell for the handsome warrior. She tried her luck a few times, but he soon made clear, that friends was the most they would ever be. That fact didn´t really break her heart but she was disapointed nontheless. All the greater her surprise had been when she realized she had feelings for the Fury of the North. Although Quinn still believed, that it was more admiration than romantic feelings. In time her emotions would change again, just as they had with Garen. She respected Sejuani, but a relationship with a woman like her? 'No thank you'.

A wet breeze of wind gust heralded a change of weather. Dark clouds covered the sky and the current was getting rougher. The city of Gloft was slowly getting smaller and smaller on the horizon. The captain, his name was Cohcar, had told them it was about two weeks till they would reach Bel´Zhun. But depending on the waters and the weather, it could easily take longer. At first Quinn had been quite sceptical about Sejuani´s choice to sail with such a run down ship, but the captain was a nice fellow and the crew seemed to be okay as well. The three women were not the only ones sailing to Shurima, there was also a man clothed in thick purple clothes. His face was covered by a mask with little holes in it. Alongside him he always had a lamppost, but Quinn didn´t know what purpose it served. He had not talked much until now, only standing at the figurehead of the ship and starring at the blue and seemingly endless sea. Sejuani was at the back of the ship, staying by Bristle´s side who refused to board the ship at first. In the first few minutes Quinn had heard a few squeaks from the chargo room, but they soon faded.

"Feeling a bit better now?" Irelia had come up behind Quinn. She had not noticed the Ionian and flinched at the sound of her voice.

"Yeah, the sea-air works wonders. But my arm still hurts like hell." Quinn pointed at her injured arm, which was wrapped in a bandage. It was most likely broken and it would take at least two weeks or more until she could use it again properly.

"Well you looked like you´re dead after that fight. We were lucky enough to get you out alive." Irelia smiled faintly.

"Sorry, should´ve waited for you two to help me. I just charged in on my own."

"Don´t apologize, it was me who went in first after all. And I did get my fair share of scolding for it." Irelia gestured at bruise over one of her eyes. She didn´t manage to get out of this fight unscated as well.

"Looks nasty, must´ve been one hell of a blow from the Noxian soldiers."

"Oh, it wasn´t from one of the soldiers." Irelia replied with a stern face. "Sejuani just beat some sense into me after we´d dealt with the patrol.

Quinn raised an eyebrow at that statement. 'Sejuani beat up Irelia?' To be honest it wasn´t that surprising after Irelia just ingored the Freljordian´s authority. But she had not expected it to be frank. "Seems like she was in a bad mood after you disregarded her command. She is a fomer warchief after all."

"She was furious to be exact. Blaming me for your death and my recklessness and honestly, I can´t say anything against her accusations. It was weak of me to lose control over such a trivial thing. Had I been more on edge we could have avoided these complications."

Quinn had to admit that Irelia was right, without her little outburst they would have had much less problems. "Maybe it is rude of me to ask, but I am just too currious. How does this...thing... work? You know the demon inside you and all that. How can you live with that?"

Quinn had expected a negative answer or at least an angry face, but Irelia just gave her a warm smile. "It is not rude of you at all. It´s only natrual that you are wondering, I myself had not thought that this was even possible, even though there is plenty of magic in Ionia. To keep it simple, its like arguing with someone in your mind. He interrupts your own trail of thought with is irrational arguments and you can´t ignore him because you can´t keep anything from him. But it is not only that, at certain situations I just lose control over my body because I can´t withstand him. It often when I get emotional or worked up. Let me tell you, it´s not pleasent to not be the master of your own mind and body. That is why I must hurry to Shurima and cleanse this evil within me. I want to be free of this curse and live a normal life again. Only then can I return to Ionia and protect it once more."

Quinn was taken aback by the honesty of her answer. She had not expected Irelia to be this open about her problems. Quinn herself always tried to avoid talking about her past to others. Not because she did not want them to know but, she hated to see their pity in their eyes when they looked at her. She had loved Caleb and was destroyed when he died, but these time were over, she had moved on. Shyvana was one of the only people in the military who knew the full story and she had always tried to keep it that way.

"Do you miss Ionia?" Quinn didn´t know why she blurted that out. But she didnt know what else to say.

Irelia´s eyes gazed at the horizon. "I suppose I do miss it. I could return any time I want, but I know it wont do any good if I return before I am cured."

Suddenly, raindrops darted the two women. The storm had finally reached them. The breeze which had been very pleasant before was getting stronger and pulled at Quinn´s clothes. Quinn had never sailed for long an thus never experienced a storm on sea. Shielding her face Irelia turned to face the Demacian. "Come on, lets get inside before it gets worse."

* * *

Sejuani pulled her face out of Bristles fur. The boar had finally quieted down and began to get used to the movement of the ship. Bristle had never been on a ship before and as such had been irritated and scared as Sejuani had led him on their transportation vehicle for the next days. At first he tried to get off the shaking ground but the more he moved the more the ship reacted to his movements. It took Sejuani quite a bit of patience and sweet talk to get him to enter the cargo room. Despite his size Bristle feared a number of things and obviously ships were one of them.

"The biggest animals are often the greatest cowards." Sejuani was surprised when she heard a deep voice from behind her. She had expected Irelia or maybe Quinn, but not a man. She turned arround and faced a tall man with purple clothes. His face was covered with a mask and he wore a hood. It seemed like he didn´t want people to know who he really was. Even stanger was the object in one of his hands. A small lamppost, barely one and a half meters long, the end which would normaly go into the ground was still covered in earth.

"No more cowards then all other creatures. The big creatures are only expected to not feel scared." Her response was quite provoking. That was maybe a bit unnecessary, but Sejuani didn´t like people who thought to be so clever.

"Ha, you´re right about that." His reaction was far from hostile, his intentions seemed friendly. Sejuani relaxed at bit, maybe she had misjudged her visitor. The man held out his arm for a handshake. "I´m Jax. Some call me the Grandmaster, but do as you like." Reluctantly Sejuani returned the gesture. His grip was very firm, which caught Sejuani off guard.

"I´m Sejuani, and this is Bristle my long time friend. We´re from the Freljord far in the north."

"Freljord, that´s quite some way you had together. I come from Icathia, not such a nice place nowadays, maybe you´ve heard of it." There was a certain sadness in his voice during the second sentence. Sejuani had heard some stories back in her childhood about Icathia. But they had been more like fairy tales, stories which seemed too unreal to be true. Supposedly it had been a prosperous city in the Shuriman desert with experts at arms and weapons. But it was destroyed by void creatures and completly vanished from most maps of Valoran. Sejuani found it hard to believe to have a man of that exact city standing before her. Icathia´s destructions was already decades ago, at least that´s what the stories told.

"You understand, that I find it hard to believe that your really from Icathia. I had been consumed by the Void long ago, if it ever existed."

"Not worries, I´m used to answers like that. Whether you believe it or not, it is the truth I´d like to tell. The 'Void' you just metioned is what I seek to defeat. I´ve traveled many countries so far, searching for allies which are worthy to assist me in my task." Despite her rigit answer he seemed honest and not offened at all.

Sejuani smirked. "Judging by your lack of company though you´re not very successful."

"Well, let´s say I can´t take anybody. I need strong people, both mentally and physically. So I challenge the people I met and whoever is albe to hold their own against me is welcome to join. Up until now I´ve only had one person who accomplished that. Despite her being suitable for the task she wasn´t willing to follow me as long as her familiy´s honor isn´t restored." Sejuani didn´t look convinced, this guy seemed like a total fraud ot her. He looked like a poor man, said he was from a city that didn´t even exist, told her he was fighting people all arround the continent with only a lamppost and had lost only one time.

A small laugh escaped her mouth. "Do you expect me to believe all this?"

"No, but it´s common curtesy. I don´t force you to believe any of it." He seemed unimpressed by Sejuani´s taunt. "Just let me ask you something, if you would hear your own story right now, would you believe it?"

Sejuani answered without any hesitation. "No, not one bit of it."

"Unbeliveable stories are more often true than not. Believable stories try so hard to be normal that they can´t be real oftentimes."

"Your logic seems very strange. Though I can´t deny you some credit for it." Maybe there was more to this man than met the eye. Although Sejuani doubted his full story was true he was more interesting than she´d originally thought.

"Thanks, I guess? But back to my reason for being here, I wanna see you in action. I saw you and your company when you came aboard. You seem strong enough to try my luck." His tone had now shifted to a more challenging voice.

"You wanna fight me?"

"Yes, to see if you´re worthy enough."

Sejuani´s lips formed a grin. "You don´t know what you´re getting yourself into." If he wanted to be beaten that badly Sejuani would gladly follow his wish.

"That´s for me to decide." He put one his hand onto her shoulder. "Tomorrow, when the weather is a bit more friendly, on the ships deck. You can use any weapon you want." He pointed at Bristle. "Though I´d advise you to not bring your mount, ships are so easy to shatter." Doubts formed in Sejuani´s head, he was so confident in his own skill. Not a single trace of fear lay in his voice and he had challenged her without hesitation. But she brushed the thoughts aside, this man was nothing to worry about, she had faced scarier foes in the past.

Sejuani considered his proposal for a short moment, but didn´t take long to find an answer. "Deal, but no cheap tricks. I prefer clean fights." She reached for Jax´s hand once again.

"Wouldn´t have it any other way." he responded and shook her hand. Without another word he exited the room and left Sejuani with her mount. Bristle had fallen into a light slumber, his back slowly rising and falling again. Sejuani sat on a small barrel near the hull of the ship. She never liked sailling, the wonky ground and the salty sea air were just not her cup of tea. Her thought drifted off to a certain Crossbowwoman aboard the ship. She had avoided Quinn the whole day already. Despite her decision to ignore her emotions she found it hard to do so. But she knew that there was absolutly nothing romantic about these emtions for Quinn. These feelings were just pure attraction to her appearance. They would fade in time, as they had before. She had had certain people that had pleasured her in her time as leader of the winters claw but non of these 'relationships', if you could call them that, lasted longer than a month or so. Sejuani was just really annoyed that it had happened in the first place. Quinn was a trustworthy companion and Sejuani had always enjoyed her company, as a friend that is. This whole emotional thing made things only more complicated and Sejuani hated it when things were more complicated than they needed to be.

A bit annoyed at her train of thought, Sejuani headed for the cabins. She needed to get some sleep to get her head free of everything.

* * *

The Sun reigned supreme in the sky, not a single cloud could be spotted. The weather had changed considerably since yesterday, as had the sea. The ship had been shaken the whole night by the crashing of the waves on the hull. Now the current was very peaceful. Irelia rolled her eyes, standing in the center of the ship, with her hands on her hips. "Is this really necessary?" She had reluctantly agreed to be the judge of their fight, to ensure both fighter would survive unharmed. But she still didn´t think much of their duel in the first place. But all her attemps to persuade both fighters failed. The captain had only laughed and given his premission, apperantly he wasn´t a stranger to such events.

Both Sejuani and Jax noded. The two of them stood adverse facing each other. Sejuani had her flail in one and the sword in the other hand. Her muscles were already tensed up and ready to charge at Jax. He held the lamppost with a firm grip in both his hands and seemed a bit more relaxed than the Freljoridan. Irelia gave the sign and Sejuani charged at her enemy. She wanted to end it quickly, so he had no chance to react. But jax was faster and dodged her attack with ease. He went to the offensive as well and Sejuani had difficulty blocking his strike. Despite him being very fast and agile it looked like it took no toll on him whatsoever. It was more like the opposite, the longer both of the traded blows, the faster he seemed to get. After what could only been minutes Sejuani was drenched in sweat and already breathing heavily. She had definitly underestimated this man, she had never fought someone who could forsee all her actions and knew how to counter them. Their fighting continued, but the tide turned more and more towards Jax favor.

"Not bad, you´re better than expected. But still i don´t think you´re good enough." Contrary to Sejuani´s believe no mockery lay in his voice. It was more like respect. But still Sejuani couldn´t feel any comfort in that. She didn´t want to lose against him. But rage or furry wouldn´t help her in this situation. She took a deep breath and considered her options. She couldn´t beat this man with normal attacks, he was just too skilled and well versed with weapons. Despite Sejuani having a flail, which was a rather rare sight on battlefields, he knew the weapon like it was his own. Before she could evaluate a plan however jax came jumping in to end their duell. Sejuani tumbled to the side, but felt the lamppost inflicting a heavy blow on her back. The pain coursed through her body and her evasion maneuver failed midway. She jumped back to her feet immediatly to face her foe again. Saw jax´s next attack too late and his weapon crashed into her shoulder. Ignoring the pain she just lifted her sword to the throat of her adversary.

In this moment Irelia stepped in. "Enough! Anymore and one of you is getting seriously injured!" Although her voice was filled with worry both fighters didn´t move one centimeter as nobody wanted to be declared as the loser in this duel. "Put down your weapons, will you?!" Irelia´s tone changed to a much more aggressive one. Reluctanly Sejuani lowered her sword and backed up a few steps. Jax eased up as well, but he had been in a much more relaxed stance anyway.

"So, who´s the winner?" Sejuani tried to compose herself.

"I´d call it a draw, though jax would have won if you continued any further." Irelia was as honest as ever, and Sejuani flinched a bit shen she heard that. Of course she knew the outcome during the fight already but it still got on her nerves how easy he seemed to have kept her under control.

"Ha, you´re lucky, the judge is on your side. This fight was already over." He appraoched Sejuani and reached for her hand. Sejuani just noded, she knew it was the plain truth. "But I got to give you creddit for lasting that long though. You´ve passed the requirements I´d say. Anyways, I´m going underdeck for a drink, care to join me?" 'Well this is unexpected. Isn´t he upset that he didn´t win.' A smile formed on her lips. Now she wanted to get to know that man. "Lead the way." She gestured him to the cabins.

The rest of the day Sejuani and Jax spent drinking in the back of the ship. He told her of his travels through Valoran and the people he had fought. It all sounded too good to be true, but Sejuani believed every single bit of after seeing him fight him today. He also told her of the one person beside Sejuani who managed to hold her own against him. Though he couldn´t stop to remind Sejuani that he was the superior warrior. Sejuani wasn´t really upset at that, it was the truth after all. Her name was Fiora Laurent, a noble form Demacia and an expert in fight with a fencer. Although he declined his request to follow him to Icathia to fight the void, she promised to bring soldiers of her house as soon as the familiy affairs in Demacia were settled. Suposedly the honor of her family had been tranished after she declined to marry a noble, she deemed not worthy as an husband. He offered Sejuani to follow him as well, but Sejuani immediatly refused. She had found a lot of respect for Jax and the goals he pursued, but she wanted to help Irelia first. Maybe after she had returned to Ionia, Sejuani could help him. The moon already shone bright when both of them said their goodbyes and went to their respective cabins.

* * *

The rest of the journey was rather boring as nothing major happened. Jax and Sejuani drank nearly every evening and shared their stories of the things they had experienced. Sejuani got along very well with the Grandmaster at Arms and seemed to enjoy her company as well. Quinn and Irelia rarely joined them as neither of the two drank much booze. Sejuani learned that Jax had learned to fight with almost every weapon and only carried the lamppost to test others in their ability to fight. Most of them made the same mistake as Sejuani and underestimated him, leading to their defeat.

Sejuani was torn form sleep by Quinn, she hadn´t even knocked. She stood beside Sejuani´s bed and made a worried face. Something bad must have happened, as it was just unusual for the Demacian to just ingore her privacy.

"Ohh-... Quinn what´s up?" The Freljordian groaned as she opened her eyes, still tired. Her head was aching as she probably drank too much the eveing before and was now paying the price for it.

"Get on deck as quickly as possible. We´ve got a little problem." He voice was dry and the usual brightness seemed to be missing. Without another word she left Sejuani´s cabin. Hasitly Sejuani put on her clothes and her armor. After what she heard she also took her waepons with her. The situation seemed pretty bad if Quinn didn´t even bother to greet her. Not even five minutes later she opened the door to the outside. It was pretty early in the morning and the sun just rose over the horizon.

Irelia, Jax, the captain and Quinn were already standing at the front of the ship and looked south. After her eyes got used to the bright morning sun she noticed that they had reached the shores of Shurima. The yellow sand covered practically all of the land. Her gaze shifted to the city in the center of the scene. This had to be Bel´Zhun, their desitnation. There was only one big problem, the city seemed to be under siege. Black clouds emerged from the residential areas and a line of what had to be shuriman warhsips blockaded the harbour. All of them were equipped with some sort of siege weaponry. Occasionally some of them fired them to launch projectiles towards the city. Quinn had warned them that Azir was trying to get control over his empire back, but this was still surprising. It was basically a declaration of war against Noxus, as they currently controlled the city.

"Well, that´s a bit of a suprise." Sejuani commented.

"So, what´s the plan?" Quinn frowed.

"We still need to get off in there." Irelia said with a stern face. Although she sounded calm, Sejuani noticed how tensed up she was. "I can´t wait until they have fought it out. If I´m ever gonna -"

"I´ve seen a lot." The Captain suddenly interrupted them. "But I´m afraid I can´t bring you to Bel`Zhun at the moment. I wanna live while longer and docking at a besieged city isn´t really helpful for that. Besides the military will confiscade all my wares for their purposes, so I´m not gonna make any profit from that." His skin was pale and the usual smirk was not present on his face.

"Your kiding right, we need to get off there." Sejuani practically shouted at him.

"Sorry, no happening." He just replied.

"We´ll see about that." Sejuani put her hand on her sword while she said that.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello again!**

 **Yeah, i know it´s been a while again. But i can´t get to write a lot at the moment due to exams coming up in february. I still hope you like the new chapter and as always feedback is appreachiated.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

It was snowing. It was always snowing in the Freljord. Freljord lacked in almost all recources except snow. In her cildhood Ashe dispised snow, she had hated the spiky texture of it and that it was cold. But with time she had learned to appreciate it. Snow offered cover where trees could not and Ashe somehow felt at home whenever she was out hunting, sneaking through the white. The self-crowned Queen of the Freljord sat on her throne, planning the next steps after the Winter´s Claw had been annihilated. Although Ashe didn´t plan any of it, it certainly came in handy for her to have Sejuani out of the way. She had never met the furious leader herself, called Sejuani, but the stories discribed her as a brutal and ruthless warrior, not really receptive for diplomacy. But nevertheless Sejuani had agreed to an armstrice and wanted to talk to Ashe herself. In that regard her death was also a loss for Ashe in her battle against Lissandra. Additionally a part of the resident city had also been damaged and many of her soldiers, including Tryndamere her political husband and friend, were still missing.

One of her guards, Keller was his name, opened the door, briefly bowed and spoke to the Queen. "Excuse me your Highness. We brought him, as requested, my Queen." Behind him two additional guards escorted a great ursine before the throne. His skin was riddled with scars and the red blood in his fur indicated that it took her men quite some effort to keep this beast under control. His hand-claws were shackled and an iron collar lay arround his neck. He stood approximately ten meters away form her when one of her guards brought him to his knees forcefully.

"Volibear, leader of the ursine and second in command in the former Winters Claw. You seem to be the only lucky one to have survived this calamity." Ashe announced with a formal voice.

"I don´t seem that lucky if I was captured by your troops afterwards." He replied coldly. "To be rescued by the enemy is as bad as dying in that avalanche." His words were filled with malice and he directed a death stare towards the Avarosan leader.

"I didn´t want for this war to happen, but Sejuani left me no choice. She declined my offer of federation, she burned villages that were under our protection and she murdered soldiers of mine without any reason to." Ashe was already annoyed with her captive. Dealing with people of the Winters Claw was always more trouble than it was worth.

"Don´t be fooled, Sejuani wanted to unite the Freljord as much as you did. But your 'Offer' was a disgrace to our leader. If she had accepted it, she would have addmited that she was not fit to rule her clan herself. It was an insult to all the ideals the Winters Claw pursued. But you, in your little palace thought it was a friendly gesture. You´re really just a child with a an iceborn weapon." Despite his furrious eyes his voice was rather calm and collected.

"Watch your mouth ursine, or my weapon will be your end. Justified or not the Winters Claw is no more. But any trace of your leader is missing." She knew he was only trying to provoke her. But it remained true, that any sign of Sejuani or her mount remained to be found.

"Even if I knew where she was I wouldn´t tell you. I will not bring her to you to have you put her in chains like me."

"And the only reason why you´re in chains is because you resisted my soldiers. Sejuani was gonna negotiate with me anyway, why would I imprision her then."

Volibear let out a chuckle. "We both know that you´re only negotiating with her because she had an army. Without it she is not worth anything to you." He had a point there. Without her men Sejuani was of little use to Ashe, but she still wanted to get her. Maybe it was because she was one of the only people who seriously threated her plan to unite the Freljord. She intended to use Sejuani as a warning for those who also tried to break apart the Freljord.

"She will answer for her crimes, in time, but there are more pressing problems in the Freljord right now. Lissandra poses a serious-"

Suddenly another guard stormed through the gate of the throne room. "My Queen, we found your husband!" His voice crackeled a bit. "He was dead, propably killed by one of the Winters Claw. We also found footprints of a Freljordian Boar near his corpse, we suspect it was Sejuani." He kneeled before Ashe while he said that, afraid to be punshied for his sudden and rude interuption.

Ashe clenched both her fists. 'This can´t be, that little whore, she is gonna pay for that.' She felt her eyes get watery and averted her gaze from the ursine infront of her. Tryndamere had never been her lover, their marriage was purely a political one. Nevertheless he had been one of her closest friends and a good advisor. She felt rage built up inside her. She was also at fault for even considering, that Sejuani was really gonna talk to her. But she managed to compose herself before speaking again.

"Take his corpse to the city, he will receive a proper funeral later." She said to the soldier and turned to Volibear."Well, it seems that she really survived that night. I ask you, will you cooperate with us to find her or not?" She tried to sound as neutral as possible but couldn´t hide all of her emotions.

"We both already know the answer for that question." Volibear just stated.

"And I suppose you´re aware what will happen to you if you do not cooperate." Ashe retorted. "With your interest in mind I give you one week time for consideration. I advise you to make the right choice, for the Freljords sake. The urisine are a vital part of our culture, we don´t want to destroy them." She pointed at one of the guards surrounding the ursine. "Take him to the cells, but do not harm him."

The ursine didn´t resist when he was escorted out of the throne room. Ashe doubted that he would help her catch Sejuani and she certainly wasn´t in the mood to show much mercy right now. But she wanted to stay true to her ideals, which meant, no unnecessary violence.

Braum, who had silently watched the scene suddenly spoke up. "Ashe, we have an approximation of the damage and the people missing. We suspect about 2.000 people were buried underneath the snow and most of them dead. The Digging-Corps are already hard at work but we don´t know how many we can save."

"Braum, send spies to Demacia and Noxus, I want that Boarrider and I want her alive." Ashe´s newly found hate for her rival was audible in her voice. And it felt as if even the air was getting colder by the second.

"My Queen please don´t do this. We have more pressing issues at hand. Our agents have informed us that Lissandra plans to attack us soon. She has the Frostguard and an army of trolls behind her. All of the tribes have united under a single 'Trollking' who swore allegiance to her. We need to prepare and cannot waste any time on Sejuani, she is not a threat anymore."

"Are u defying me Braum?" The atmosphere was overflowing with hostility. "I know very well the extend of the situation we are in, but I will not let her go unpunished for her crimes. She broke her promise as a warchief. Do as I say!" Shocked by her sudden outburst Braum bowed before Ashe. Such a thing had never happened before, the Frost Archer was usually receptive to logical arguments and had never abused her authority to reinforce her argument. Ashe was aware that she was being irrational right now, but her emotions got the better of her.

"Of course, I deeply apologize. We´ll send agents to both countries at once."

"Any news from Demacia?" It had been two days since ambassador Quinn had departed to inform the captial city of Demacia.

"No, but we suspect to soon get a message."

"Good, inform me of any news from there. Tell the clans it is time."

"You sure this is the time?"

"If we face Lissandra we need every warrior, capable or not. The Ice Witch is not to be reasoned with."

* * *

The Captain made an ugly grimace. The tip of Sejuani´s sword pressed against his throat.

"Ha, you think threating me will get you what you want? What are you? A bloody Noxian? You know it doesn´t work that way. I will not set sails for the harbor, it would mean certain death for everybody here. Are you that fucking eager to get yourself killed?" Sejuani noticed no fear in his voice. Apparently he did not take her seriously.

"You really think I´ll care for you pretty little life? I suggest-"

"Sejuani stop!" Quinn stepped inbetween both of them."You don´t need to solve everything with violence you know." 'Damit can´t you just shut up for a minute I´m doing this for one of us u know!' But Sejuani knew she couldn´t say that to the Crossbowwoman´s face. Quinn slowly put her hand on the hilt of the Freljordian´s weapon. "Just let us think a minute before we lose our head, okay?"

Sejuani didn´t want to back down. She didn´t want her authority to waver. Stepping down now would be a humilation. But at the same time she couldn´t refuse a request from Quinn. 'There´s something seriously fucking wrong with me.' She thought as she lowered her sword. "Alright, I´ll stay put...for now that is."

As expected, a smirk appeared on the captain´s face. "You should keep her under control a bit better if you ask me." He mocked to Quinn.

"And you should keep your mouth shut in the right moments!" Quinn replied immediatly. Although she always tried to avoid conflict, she seemed to be very protective of people she knew. "You will get us to the shore, I don´t care how and I don´t demand from you to sail to the blockade, but we really need to get ashore."

"And if not? Will you let your little pet off the leash again?" He practically begged for death at this point. The hand arround her sword clenched so much that they almost went pure white. Sejuani knew the only thing he did was cheap mockery but it still pissed her off. But for Quinn´s sake she kept herself under control.

"If you mean her," Quinn pointed with her finger at Sejuani "no she will not kill you. It seems that this would be far too generous. After all you would be dead and could not feel any pain anymore. As for him," Valor landed on her armguard "he can just gouge out your eyes. Let me tell you I´ve seen too many men crying before me to asure you that you´ll be fine afterwards. But Valor has not eaten eyes for a long time, so he´ll be quite eager." A wicked smile acompanied the somewhat maniacal monologue.

The Captain winced. "What...I mean..." The sailsman slowly backed off a few steps. "We can always talk it out right? No need to get so cruel." His voice sounded broken and was more like pleading for his life.

"I see we´re talking. Now, how do you intend to fullfil our request?" Quinn´s attitude had yet again changed back to the usual friendly and cheery one.

"Hmm. We´ll be just landing directly at the beach" The Captain slowly stated, clearly trying to regain his composture. "I do warn you however, that this is extremly risky as well. The siegeing party will obviously scout out the area arround the city and think your Noxians. I don´t want any part of your adventures on land. I bring you to the shore, you leave the ship and I´m gone forever."

"You think you´re in a position to make any demands?" This time Irelia stepped up."Those two are on a roll today." She hinted to Quinn and Sejuani.

He flinched again "Jeez, why are you being so picky? Let´s say I would apreciate it if things went that way."

"We´ll see when we get there, but dont try anything funny, I´m not in a mercyful mood today." Sejuani commanded, taking control of the situation again.

The ship changed it´s course, towards a beach the west of the city. Bel´Zhun itself was still being bombarded by various siege weapons. Sejuani reckoned, that it wouldn´t take long until the garison was ready to surrender. On the other hand, Noxians weren´t really the people who gave up easily, they´d rather threw away their lives in a battle to the death, than save it. While Sejuani admired courage and strength she didn´t think much of the Noxian army, they valued strenght, which was good, but at the same time victory at any cost and in any situation. Surrendering a lost battle was not a sign of weakness, it showed that the commander valued the life of it´s soldiers. But who was she to judge, she tried to challenge Ashe´s army which had been way bigger than her own, maybe she had fought a futile battle for the crown from the start?

* * *

In the late afternoon, the ship neared the shore. The Captain had convinced them to wait for the sun to set before leaving the ship. That way they wouldn´t be spotted that easily. Sejuani was stunned by the image before her, golden sand dominated the scenery and made it look like the whole land was made up of the precious metal. Rarely, a tree or a plant disturbed the seemingly prefect landscape. Quinn approached her from behind, ready to leave the ship.

"Seju, what about Bristle? How do we get him to the shore?" She frowned.

Sejuani smirked. "Don´t you worry about that, he can swim." Quinn raised an eyebrow. "I´d even say that he enjoys bathing and swiming. He´ll get to the shore, you´ll see. I worry more about getting him out of the water and into the heat of the sun. Freljordian Boars are not really made for that kind of climate and to be honest, I´m not made for it, too."

Quinn chuckled. "No wonder, when you walk arround in fully fur-lined armor. You should really get some new clothes in the next city. I don´t want to see you get roasted in this heat."

"Yeah, yeah, what ever you say. More importantly, what do we do about the captain?"

"We´ll leave him be, of course." Quinn answered without hesitation.

"Really? After you´re little show of intimation I thought you really wanted him dead. I was really surprised to see you act like that." Sejuani grinned. It had indeed caught her by surprise how Quinn 'persuaded' the captain.

"To be honest, I hated every second of it. I´m just not the kind of person who gets what he wants through that behavior." Quinn´s cheeks flushed a bit. Sejuani chuckled at that statement. Quinn was just demacian to the core.

The three women and their mounts got ready to leave the ship. Bristle made an happy reaction when Sejuani told him the next steps. The were just about to get off when Jax approached her.

"So, you´re leaving already? That´s too bad."

"We wanted to get off here anyways, so it´s not like it´s sudden." Sejuani explained.

"Still, I enjoyed your company. It´s gonna get a bit lonely on board now."

"I had my fair share of fun as well. But as they say, all good things must end." Sejuani smirked. She had grown quite fond of the Icathian warrior herself. The evenings she spent with him were good memories. He was also one of the best fighters Sejuani had ever seen, so she respected him a lot. Jax reached for her hand, but Sejuani just gave him a hug. "Maybe we´ll see each other again in the future."

"I sure hope so. Good luck to you and your fellas."

The water was warmer than Sejuani had expected it to be and it felt weird to walk through it in full armor. The ship halted about 200 meters from the shore so they had to walk to the beach. Bristle just splashed into the water and a huge wave followed. As soon as they had left the ship it began to distance itself from them. They set up a camp not far from the water and managed to get enough wood for a small fire. The sun was already approaching the horizon, when everything was ready. They had taken some food from the ship with them and soon the smell of roasted meat filled the air. Both Irelia and Quinn were pretty silent the whole time and Sejuani was accually quite happy about that. After all three of them had finshed with their meal Irelia spoke up.

"I´m gonna take the frist watch. I´m not really tired at the moment so you two can go to sleep."

"Sounds fine be me." Quinn replied while letting out a loud yawn. "I don´t know why, but this climate makes me real tired."

"Tell me about it. I´m gonna take the second watch then. Wake me up when you get tired Irelia. You should get some more wood before though. The fire won´t last that long anymore." The Ionian noded to Sejuani. The Freljordian checked up on Bristle to find him already asleep, contrary to her belief he didn´t seem to mind the climate that much. But it had also gotten much colder than before. The temprature was hardly compareable to the heat during daylight. Sejuani searched for a suitable spot and found one not far from the fire. Before she went to sleep herself she took one of her furs to give it Quinn.

"Here, it seems it´s getting quite cold at night." Sejuani held out the object to the Demacian.

"Thanks, Seju." After Quinn took it, Sejuani turned to get back to her 'bed'. "Wait..." Quinn looked a bit flustered.

"Hmm, what´s up?"

"Accually, nevermind." Quinn composed herself.

Slightly bewildered Sejuani went to sleep.

* * *

Irelia got up to searched for some additional firewood. The only trees growing at the shore were palm trees with only one trunk. So she settled for small bushed and some loose planks which were jetted to the beach by the current. Irelia looked to the besieged city, the light of some fires rose to the sky. The bombardement which had been present at daylight had stopped and it almost seemed like the city was at peace. The real problem would be to get inside they city to get clues on how to continue. The oracle at Mount Targon had been quite vague, but Irelia choose to lie to Sejuani and Quinn in that regard.

She was already on her way back to the camp when she felt cold steel press against her back. Immediatly she wanted to cry out to warn her companions but the only thing she managed to get out was a muffle. Her enemy had already covered her mouth to prevent her alarming the others.

"Shhh, keep quiet girl. We don´t want to disturb the others do we?" A feminie voice wispered into her ear. Irelia knew that these were not mere bandits, they were either part of the garrison or or the besiegers. "Hamet, Razia, take the others and capture the two still at their camp. And be careful of their animals."

Suddenly a bunch figures emerged from the shadows and approached the positon where Quinn and Sejuani sleept. Irelia tried to struggle free or call for her blades, but in vain. She had left her weapon at the camp, she was just too far away to control them. Furthermore her captors grip was way too firm the escape from. She heard a short scream echo through the night, followed by a couple of screeches and squecks. Their enemies had reached the camp and by the looks of it defeated Sejuani and Quinn successful, not that it was difficult to begin with, both of them were asleept.

"Don´t make this more difficult than it needs to be. You practically beg to be found, if you light up a fire in the desert." At this point Irelia knew it was futile to resist or escape, it would only cause more problems for Sejuani and Quinn. The Ionian was forced on her knees and felt an iron chain around her ankle. The sting in her back stopped and a woman stepped infront of her. Was a bit smaller than herself and had black hair, a scarf decorated her neck. Her clothes were mostly brown and goldenish with some small pieces of armor at her arms and thighs. A weapon which looked like a huge Boomerang hung behind her back and in her hand was a short sword. She tied Irelias arms with a rope and took the long end of it.

"I advise you to follow like a good girl, or else this will hurt." Suddenly Irelia was dragged forward, as her captivator followed her companions and pulled at the rope. Because her feet were forced together, keeping up in tempo was harder than expected and the iron chains scoured at her skin. Behind Irelia she thought to recognize two women and an eagle and a big animal which could only be bristle. The whole convoy wasn´t heading towards the city, so the people who attacked them were likely shurimans.

After only five minutes Irelia wasn´t really walking but rather stumbling behind the black haired woman. She didn´t know how long they walked but to her it seemed like an eternity. When she finaly saw the light of an encampment she knew her assumptions where correct. They had been captured by Shurimans. Golden armoured soldiers guarded the entrance and the emblem of the sund disk were visible on most of the flags Irelia saw. The Shuriman woman stopped before a tent with a giant warrior infront of it. The only difference to the others was that, a metal door blocked the entrance.

"We caught them lingering arround at the beach. Might be noxian spies." The woman declared to the guard when he gave her a questioning look.

"We will inform the high command to interogate them together with the one who surrendered earlier." he responded.

The black haired woman looked to Irelia and smirked. "I´m sure we´ll see each other later." She tossed Irelia into the tent with the Demacian and the Freljordian following after her. Outside, the protest of their respective animal companions could be heard. But soon the noise faded. Irelia looked arround her and saw both Quinn and Sejuani unconscious beside her. At the other side of the tent was a man, dressed in blueish grey clothes with black hair. The blue bruise arround his eye looked nasty and the snarls showed that he was sleeping.

'Could have been worse' She thought to herself.


	12. Chapter 12

**Welcome back!**

 **I finally finished the next chapter. This one was one of the more difficult ones so it took me quite a while. I really hope you like it. Feel free to say if you like it or not.**

 **Also im noticing a lot of misspells in my other chapters, I´ll try to clean them up and avoid them as much as possible. So without further ado, here is chapter 12.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 _The scenery was too familiar with Sejuani to ever forget it. Her tent in the camp of the Winters Claw, the scent of wood burning in the small fire. Through an opening the stary sky was visible clear with an almost full moon. Sejuani sighed, it had been quite a while since she had that dream. It had not appeared once during their travel with the ship. The Freljoridan was just about to stand up to go outside, when the familiar face of Volibear appeared at the tent entrance. Well this at least saved her some time._

 _"So, what do you want this time? I thought I made my point in our last conversation." She knew this was all just a dream so she might as well get straight to the point.  
_

 _"You made your point clear indeed, but do you not see what has happened to you? You go against all the ideals you held dear. You´ve become weak, the same weakness you´ve sworn to purge before." His face was indifferent although his words were not._

 _Sejuani rose and stood before her mental image. "I. Am. Not. Weak. Just because I´ve found people to travel with does not mean I´ve become weaker."_

 _"That may be true, but you depend too much on them. In the past you would have never taken up help so easily. Emotions make you weak. And as you know, the weak can not survive. When you were a warchief you made decisions based on rationality not emotions." His voice was almost accusingly._

 _Sejuani knew that he was right, she used to think like that and it had not been a terrible life. But in the last weeks she had experienced a multitude of things that were only comparable to the time before her father had died. "I see now where you´re coming from and what you expect me to do. My time as warchief is over and my ideals were faulted. If I can trust the people arround me I can accept their help without hesitation." Sejuani responded. She´had learned to trust both the Ionian and the Demacian although the two of them had their problems.  
_

 _"That may be the case at the moment, but I wonder how long it will take for you to return to your old ways." He scrached his chin with one of this claws." And when you do, remember who you betrayed and what you have to do. There is always a reckoning, in some form or another." Sejuani now noticed that something was off about the ursine. Had he always been his small and his fur this grey? Now that she thought about it she didn´t really remember exactly how Volibear used to look like._

 _"I have made my decision and the me that is you has no place in it." Her answer was resolute and Sejuani was surprisde to hear that her voice had gotten pretty loud. Although she sounded sure she still knew that most of it was just show, she always wondered if she was doing the right thing. Ironically she was talking to herself right now, so putting up a front was kind of useless.  
_

 _"Even so, I will keep watch..." The voice along with the figure slowly faded away. At the same time, Sejuani´s eyes started to blur and a pain slowly settled into her head. It was getting stronger and stronger until it was almost unbearable._

* * *

Sejuani slowly opened her eye lids. She remembered what had happened last night. Soon after she had parted with Quinn to go to sleep they had been ambushed. The Freljordian had managed to knock out one of her attackers, but was overwhelmed by the rest. Apparently all three of them had been transported to an army camp and thrown into an iron cage, surrounded by a tent. As she looked arround she saw that there were four people in this 'prison', including herself. There was no sign of Hope, Valor or Bristle, so Sejuani had to believe they were save for now. Irelia and Quinn were still out of it but the unknown man in one of the corners looked at her intruiged. He looked pretty beat up and his hair were a mess. Seems like he had put up much more of a fight compared to the three women.

"Had a goodnights sleep?" He asked jokingly. At least he had not lost his humor.

"Nahh, could´ve been better. I could do without the pain in the back of my head." She answered. Although they were imprisioned, Sejuani didn´t feel pariculary threatened. By the looks of it they were captured by Shurimans. If they could convince them that they were infact only travelers, she suspected that they would let them go. Otherwise they just had to think something up.

"Well, welcome to the Shuriman camp. I really wonder what a Freljordian, an Ionian and a Demacian, especially the birdlady of all people, are doing out here. Near a Shuriman city under my nations control." He said sarcastically. So he really was a Noxian captive, it was not really surprsing though, considering the city was under siege. Unsetteling was the fact that he knew exactly where all three of them came from, it sounded too sure to just say it was a wild guess. Even worse, he seemed to know Quinn in particular.

"I don´t think that´s of any concern for you Noxian, especialy when you´re imprisioned as well. Additionally, it doesn´t seem like the city will be under Noxian rule for much longer." Sejuani´s response was quite harsh, her mistrust plain in sight.

"Well, it´s not like I´ll live that long anymore. Might as well sate my curiousity." He said casually.

Sejuani stayed silent, she wasn´t keen on keeping this conversation any longer than she had to. She didn´t like Noxians, they were always full of themselves and their government had always tried to mendle with affairs in the Freljord. They always tried to split up clans to disrupt the unification of their nothern neighbour. In that sense she partially understood Irelia´s hatred toward the people of this nation, but in reality there were assholes in every country even Demacia or Ionia. The Freljordian thought back to the dream she had earlier. She knew that there was an inner conflict between her ideals and the recent events that taught her otherwise. It was true that living by the things, her mentor had told her, had brought her pretty far. On the other hand Sejuani had enjoyed most of the recent events. But she still felt a sense of responsiblity for her former soldiers, she had to return to the Freljord eventually. The top priority was of course to help Irelia, after escaping this prison of course. Sejuani didn´t want to see the Ionian turn into a bloodthirsty maniac, although that happened quite frequently when Irelia had fought her enemies. She didn´t know how long she just sat there, deep in thought, but eventually Irelia awoke.

She got up and looked at Sejuani, her eyes still half shut. Her mouth opened in an attempt to say something but she stopped as soon as she noticed the stranger on the other side of their prision. Her eyes narrowed to inspect him and Sejuani believed to see hatred in eyes. 'Does she know he is a Noxian or is she just assuming things?' Went through her mind. Well Sejuani didn´t really care either way, if the man was alive or killed by Irelia made no difference for her whatsoever. But Irelia made no attempt to assault the man, she was just content sitting there and giving him a death stare.

"Not that I can blame you Ionian, but could you stop looking at me like I´m an abomination from the void? Even people from Noxus have feelings you know." The man suddenly commented. Irelia didn´t answer, she just continued to stare at the object of her hatred. The silence became more and more tensious. Just when it reached an unbearable level a person stepped through the entrance of their cage.

He pointed at Sejuani. "You, get up. You´ll come with me." Sejuani considered her options. Trying to resist now would be near pointless, she had no weapons and both Quinn and Irelia couldn´t help her. She decided to follow his orders for now. She got to her feet and trailed behind the Shuriman. "Good luck." the black haired stranger said with a smirk on his face. 'Fuck you'.

When she exited the tent the sun blinded her vision at first. It was already noon and the encampment was pretty stirred up. Soldier ran between the different tents to arm themselves. In the distance Sejuani could spot a bunch of catapults and trebuchets. The city was still bombared mercylessly. Her observations were suddenly interupted by her escort.

"In here." She was pushed rudely through an entrance to a small tent. A table was positioned in the middle with a rough replica of Bel´Zhun on top of it. Standing at one edge of the table was a black haired woman. When she noticed the arrival of the prisoner she focused her attention on them.

"So, you´re the frist one. I think you know whats coming right now." Sejuani knew damn well what was about to happen, this was gonna be an interogation, and not a pleasant one. "It´s question and answer time. Here´s how this is gonna go, I ask you something and you tell me what you know. If I don´t like the answer.." she briefly paused. "Let´s just say there will be consequenses." The Freljordian gritted her teeth, this was gonna be tough.

"First off, who are you and where do you come from?"

"Sejuani, from the Freljord." 'That was easy.'

"Called like one of these wanna be Queens up there, huh?" Sejuani had to smirk at that."Who do you serve?"

"No one." The Shuriman raised an eyebrow. She didn´t like this answer at all.

"We´re only at the second question, and you´re already lying. Don´t make this harder than it needs to be. So, who do you serve?"

"No one as I just said." Her Interogator made a sign to the guard and suddenly Sejuani felt the impact of a fist against one of her cheeks. It hurt, but she had endured much worse.

"Don´t take me for a fool. I will get the truth out of you eventually."

Throughout the next hour the 'Interogation' continued, but the Shuriman was rarely content with the answers Sejuani gave, although all of the were at least somewhat true. She revealed most of their journey so far and what they had experienced in Demacia. She left out the fact that she was infact one of the 'wanna-be-Queen' and why she had left Freljord in the frist place. She also didn´t say anything about Irelia´s 'problem', since that would propably just get her killed. That didn´t change the fact that her face was soon filled with bruises and blood. But Sejuani did not falter, if she just got the woman to accept that what she told was accually the truth, they could avoid a much worse fate.

"Last question, though I doubt that I will get a thruthful answer, why have you come to Bel´Zhun?"

"On of my companions seeks the help of Nasus, an ascendent, to cure an illness." Was it an illness? Maybe?

At the mentioning of that name, the woman flinched. It seemed that Sejuani had struck a nerve. "What? How do you know he is here?" She marched toward the Freljordian, fear and rage both visible in her eyes. "Nobody knows that he is even alive." The woman grabed Sejuani by the throat and forced her to look into her Interogators face.

"My friend ventured to mount tragon in search for a cure and there she was told to seek his help." She knew she was risking much in telling her interogator that Irelia was in need of help, but it was the only chance to persuade her to believe the truth.

Without another word the black haired woman stormed out of the tent and left Sejuani alone with the guard. It took a while before she returned, but she was very composed and calm again. She just poked her head through the entrance.

"Bring her to the campfire."

Sejuani was forced back on her feet and pushed out of the tent by the soldier. He lead her through the encampment towards a small square. The soldiers they passed looked upon Sejuani with disgust, they propably thought she was a Noxian. They arrived at the square, a great pile of wood in the middle of it.

Sejuani noticed both Irelia and Quinn already sitting on the ground before the pile, but there was also someone else. Or was it something? The 'person' was at least three meters tall and instead of a human head he possessed the face of a jackal. He was clothed in golden armor and some sort of giant halberd rested in his hands. He looked like personified majesty and had an aura of pure authority. At the sight of her Interogator and Sejuani he turned to them a glimpse of anger and disappointment in his eyes.

"Sivir, you should have consulted me earlier." He said, his voice echoing through the air.

"How should I know you were waiting for them? They were acting suspicious arround the city. Don´t act as if I´m the villain now." Although the Ascendant was almost double her size, Sivir did not falter one moment.

"I´ve seen the arrival of these three strangers in my visions, I know why they are here and what they want. I can assure you they are not in the slightest affiliated with Noxus and can be trusted." His voice was gentle yet commanding at the same time.

"You know, I don´t care. After this siege is over, I want my money and me and my men will be gone."

"Azir will not be pleased should he hear about that."

"All Azir cares about is rebuilding his own empire. I am but a pawn in his game and I don´t intend to be used as one." Semms like there was something between them, but Sejuani had no idea what they were talking about.

"I think you misjudge him. He wants to rebuilt Shurima to rule it with you, you are the only one he has left." Why would a mecenary be that important to the Emperor himself? Nasus turned to Irelia. "But let us save this conversation for another time. We have more pressing matters at hand."

Suddenly the sound of a bell echoed through the camp. The soldiers which before had some idle chat jumped to their feet readying their weapons. Sivir looked to the direction where the origin of the alarm came form, her hand forming a fist. "Oh, what is it now?!" A soldier came running to the square and halted, taking a moment to catch his breath.

"The Noxians, they are making a sortie! The siege weapons are in danger!" The news speard like wildfire through the the whole army and many soldiers immediatly prepared for combat. But it was very caotic and reminded Sejuani of her own tribe. There had been no groups with captains, everyone was his own master, well except for the higher-ups.

Sivir turned to Nasus. "Seems like there ARE more pressing events right now. Get news to the emperor to get his troops to help, I´ll manage the defence till then." Apparently she didn´t hesitate to order the Ascendant arround herself.

"I will, but first I will see that our guests are safe." he replied, but Sivir shook her head.

"No time. Just leave them here for now, we deal with them later." Nasus noded an departed with swift steps.

Before Sivir vanished too, Irelia called out to her. "Hey, remove our constrains please. We can fight to help you."

"Never, Nasus may trust you but I don´t. Just stay put here for a while longer, you´ll get your freedom back eventually." Her answer was resolute and she left neither Sejuani and Quinn nor the Ionian a chance to object. She rushed off into the direction of the siege equipment.

"Great." Sejuani muttered, seriously pissed off. Up until now this day had been a giant pile of shit for her. Blowing off some steam in battle would have been great for her. But now they had to wait until Sivir and her men had finshed off the Noxians.

"Are you alright Seju?" Quinn asked worried.

"I´m okay, just a few bruises, that´s all." She replied. The pain wasn´t too bad.

Not even a minute later, the first sounds of battle could be heard. Cries from the wounded man as well as the sound of splintering wood. Strangely enough the noises seemed to be getting louder.

"Is it just me, or are the Noxians advancing?" Quinn asked the uncertainty audible in her voice.

"Indeed, the battle is approaching our position." Irelia answerd in a calm thone. "We should be prepared to fend off any attackers."

"Yeah, with tied feet and hands?! Bad luck seems to be drawn to us like flies to boar shit."

The roars of soldiers and the clashing of weapons grew louder and louder. Sejuani searched frantically for a way to get rid of her constraints. But as all the soldiers had just charged to the front there were no weapons left. Her eyes fell upon a fire rake near the woodpile. Determined to get out of this dire situation, she went for it. Sejuani grabed the tool with boths hands as they were still tied together. She could not free herself, so she returned to Quinn and Irelia to help them instead.

"Are you really think this is gonna work?" Irelia asked with a doubtful voice.

"We don´t have another chance." Sejuani answered and started to work on Irelias manacles. "By the way Quinn, how come this black haired Noxian knows you so well. He seemed almost happy to see you, and not in a positive way."

Quinn was at a loss of words for a second. "He...well...he is a very famous Noxian assassin, his name is Talon. I...stumbled across him in a small town near the border a few years back."

"Must have been a meeting worth remembering, if he still knows about you." Although not visible on her face, Irelia was teasing Quinn quite a bit.

"NO! Not what you´re thinking about anyway. Let´s just say some unlikely coincidents happened. It was just impossible to not remember that night." Sejuani was not convinced by that. But she didn´t want to inquire any further. It was Quinn´s decision to tell them more or not.

"We have a bit more important things at hand now. Gossip can wait until we´re free and the attack is over. So can you just keep steady?" Getting the ties undone was a real hassle and Sejuani was already in a bad mood.

Irelia´s ankles were freed pretty fast, as the metal was already rusty. She was about half way done with the Ionians hand ties when a few Noxian soldiers stormed the square. 'They´re here already? Just how bad are they getting overrun?' Ignoring the fact that the three of them were tied up and as such propably prisoners, the warriors attacked. Sejuani turned from her compaions to defend them and barely manged to block one swing without losing her balance. Before her opponent could react, Sejuani kicked him right between his legs. He fell to the ground accompanied by a primeval scream. In the corner of her eyes the Freljordian noticed that Irelia managed to free herself. She turned towards the Ionian to give her "weapon" to someone who could accually use it.

"Catch!" Sejuani threw the rake as accurately as it was possible with tied hands. Irelia snatched it out of the air and immediatly charged at the enemy that was closest to her. She just drove the tool brutally through his throat while dodging the soldiers attack. He stumbled to the ground, blood gushing out from his wound. The Ionian rushed back, her opponents weapon in hand, to her companions and cut Sejuani´s bonds in one single slash. The Freljordian didn´t waste any time and took the axe from the soldier who was still wimpering on the ground.

Sejuani´s frist thought was to get to get to the front. If the could push back the Noxians now, the siege was gonna be over. But if Sivir was to die, the Shuriman troops would lose all hope. Sejuani didn´t know exactly what position the black haired woman occupied, but she knew she was somekind of leader. The way the other soldiers had looked at her told Sejuani that much. While trading blows with another Noxian she screamed to Irelia to inform her of her plans.

"You and Quinn safeguard the camp. I´ll go and get the Shuriman captain." The worry in Irelias face was visible but she knew Sejuani had already made her choice.

"Wait we can-" Quinn objected but was silenced by a single look of the Ionian. Sejuani left both of them behind to search for Sivir.

Sejuani slowly fought her way between the camps. Most of the soldiers were pretty inexperienced so it wasn´t difficult for Sejuani to advance. The problem was just the sheer amout of enemies. You´d think that the sieging party had the superiority in numbers, but this did not seem like it was the case at the moment. Maybe the troops of the Shurimans were just scattered arround the city too much but at this rate the battle would certainly be lost.

When she was approaching the siege weapon she spotted Sivir in the distance. She was fighting five enemies at once the boomerang which had previously hung over her back in her hands. Most of the catapults and trebuchets were already destroyed or lit on fire. She was fighting a lost battle, but she still continued on. Sejuani headed towards her striking down any enemies who dared to face her. The Shuriman was slowly getting cornered but still managed to defend herself. A burning pile of wood, which had most likely been a catapult blocked Sivir to retreat any further.

It was now only about ten meters between the two women, but a few soldiers had recognized the Freljordians plan and tried to repell her to finish the Shuriman off. Three soldiers attacked Sejuani at once and she had to pull back a few steps. She brute forced her way through them receiving a nasty cut at her waist but ignored the pain. She turned her attention back to Sivir and saw that she was already bleeding from a few wounds.

Sejuani charged the men who were still ocupied with Sivir and killed two of them immediatly, leaving only three. Sivir used the surprise attack to push them back and make room for herself. But she was pushed to the ground by one of them, her weapon slipping from her hands. One of the attackers tried one last attempt to stop Sejuani but she leaned to the side, dodging the swin and parted the hand from the Noxian´s body. He cried out looking at his severed hand in disbelief. The remaining two fled at the sight of that display of cruelty and strength. Sejuani held out her hand to help the Shuriman up.

"Hey, the cavalry is here. But we can´t win here. We need to retreat and rally the rest of your troops." Sivir took the Freljordians hand and pulled herself up.

"I don´t know how you did it and why you´re even here but I thank you. Still, you´re too late." She pointed to the horizon behind Sejuani who turned arround. "Look." She saw some Noxian soldiers run in fear but further in the distance she recognized more soldiers. They all marched perfectly in line and looked fresh. "This was only the frist wave. I don´t know how they assembled so many troops, but this looks like the end." It was only about tenty meters between them and what must have been dozens if not hundreds of Noxians. They blocked their way back and left them no room to retreat to, they were cornered like mice in a cage.

Sejuani pulled another blade from a corpse nearby, now holding swords in both hands. "Well, then let´s make sure they remember us." She charged with a battle roar directly at their battle formation. She had not expected to die in the desert of all places, but this place was as good as any other. Sejuani did not fear death, in fact it relieved her from some of her burdens. But it still felt wrong to part this world with so much unfinished business. She regreted a few things, but she couldn´t change that now.


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello, It´s me again! You know, the author.**

 **Oh boy has it been a long time. I had this chapter half finished for a while now. But due to exams and personal stuff I wasn´t really able to focus on writing that much. I still hope you can enjoy it and like the direction the story is facing!**

 **So, here´s chapter 13!**

* * *

Immediatly after Sejuani had left, Irelia freed Quinn and together they moved to defend the square against attackers. Although most had already left to the frontline some shuriman soldiers joined them. Quinn had never been particularly good with a sword, but luckily most of the Noxians were only recruits. She managed to fend off most of their attacks with ease, having finished a full military education. While she fought, she noticed herself getting increasingly worried about Sejuani. She knew of course that the Freljordian was an excelent fighter and as such would not go down easily. But more and more Shurimans came retreating from the front and Sejuani was not among them. Sejuani was not a person who was quick to retreat, but she wasn´t stupid enough to just die in a lost fight either.

The fight slowly drew towards its end, with the Shurimans being the likely winner. But Quinn noticed a certain black haired man, who was about to finish off two soldiers of the sand empire. She recognized him, Talon, the rightfully feared assassin of house Du Couteau. He was considered one of the best people in his job in all of Valoran. His methods were subtle and efficient, never leaving much evidence. He didn´t care much for politics, but Quinn reckoned that he also never questioned an order form his superiors. Quinn had already encountered him when she had awoken and the fact, that he was also involved with the Noxian presence in Shurima unsettled her.

Their paths had crossed once before, when Quinn had been on a secret mission inside Noxus. It had been purely coincidential. While Quinn had not been one of his targets, they still had fought several times. Neither of them had been able to finish the other off and both shared a certain amount of respect for each other because of that. But ultimately he was an enemy of Demacia, a threat to the peace and the innocent. If she was letting him go now, he would cause many problems for Demacia.

Filled with determination she marched towards him. He noticed her, of course. It seemed that he had retrieved most of his weapons, including his personal armblade.

"Quinn, what a surprise to meet you here. Unfortunately I am not here to stay, so I´m affraid I can´t keep you company." His voice had the same tone as always, serious and cold as a knife´s steel.

"You will answer for you crimes, Talon. I´ll see to that myself." Quinn´s pace quickened and she readied herself for the confrontation.

"Maybe, but not today. It´s lucky enough for you that my employer has not deemed it necessary to put you on my list. But accually I´ve grown quite fond of our little confrontations. Until another time, Ranger." Before Quinn could reach the assassin, he threw a bunch of throwing knifes in her direction. Quinn dashed to the right to avoid them, but slipped. She hit the ground and lost sight of Talon because of that. Pain coursed through her head but she immediatly raised it to face her enemy. But she couldn´t locate him on the square anymore. He had already fled and Quinn had no idea in which way.

'Damn it!' She had been so close. Finding tracks of Talon would take months, finding himself propably years. She was so absorbed in her failure, that Quinn didn´t notice Irelia walking up to her.

"We´ve successfully repelled the attack. Are you alright?" Worry was audible in her voice. She still held the bloodied sword from before in her hands. The Ionian streched out one hand to help Quinn get on her feet. Quinn was surprised to see her so emotional yet not enraged. She had avoided to snap although there were plenty of Noxians arround. It seems that she had herself much better under control than Quinn had initially thought. It was surprising, considering what Nasus had just told her. Before Sejuani had been brought to them he had spoken to both of them shortly. He explained to her that he was certainly unable to help her, but he knew exactly who could. That had been unsettling to say the least, but Irelia just noded without any trace of emotion.

"I´m fine, thanks. How about you?" Quinn replied while pulling herself up.

"Yeah me too. We should now wait for the reinforcements to take over." Irelia proposed. But for Quinn that was not an option. 'Doesn´t she want to help Sejuani? We can´t just wait while she is still fighting.'

"No, we need to get to the frontline as soon as possible. We can´t just rest while Sejuani is still out there."

"Quinn, the soldiers are exhausted and most of them are retreating. It would be unwise to just charge head first into battle when we got no one to back us up." Irelia argued, but nothing of this made sense to Quinn. Did she just refuse to help her?

"What are you saying?! Sejuani is fighting right now, SHE has no one to back her up, we need to help her!" Quinn´s voice was getting louder.

"She asked us to stay here and defend. I´m sure she wil return any second now, we should just wait for her." The Ionian was now almost pleading Quinn to not go.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" If Irelia refused to go that just left her one option." Fine...If you don´t go I´ll go alone." Quinn turned to run in the direction where Sejuani had taken off earlier.

"Please...don´t..." She heard behind her. Irelia´s voice was nothing more than whimpering at this point. Confused to her sudden change of attitude Quinn turned back to her. Her eyes were glistering with tears. "Please don´t leave me." Quinn had never witnessed the Ionian like that, so fragile and vulnerable.

"What..." Quinn was stunned. "Why..." Questions were swirling up in her head but she just could understand what was up with Irelia. She had always just assumed Irelia to be a strong person. She had always put up with whatever Sejuani or Quinn had done and always apologized if she had caused any trouble. Yet she had never shown this side of her, she was after all only a person with her own feelings.

"I don´t help Sejuani because I can´t." Irelia explained, her voice still sounding weak. "If I go I´ll turn into this...this...monster again. I don´t want to be that, because that is not me." Irelia´s body was now trembling, her hands holding on to Quinn´s." I barely managed to hold it back until now. But I can´t do this alone." The Demacian didn´t know what to make of this situation. But she knew that Sejuani needed her, that perhaps her life depended on it. 'I don´t want to lose her.'

"I´m sorry, I have to go." Quinn said in quiet but decisive tone. She broke the connection of their hands and rushed in the direction Sejuani had gone earlier, leaving Irelia to herself.

* * *

Irelia felt awful. She had seen the confusion in Quinn´s eyes, her helplessness in this situation. She had faced her with a cruel choice, one that no one likes to take. But Quinn had chosen and she had probably chosen the right path.

 _Your friend has abandoned you. Why fight back if you can´t change it anyway? I can make you strong, make you powerful. I can give you what you need to protect what you love.  
_

 _'SHUT UP! I don´t need anything from you!'_

 _Your struggle is meaningless. You fight against forces you can not comprehend. Soon you will be powerful, you will be able to do anything._

 _'Liar! It won´t be me who is in control. I won´t sucumb to a demon like you!'  
_

 _But you already are, you just pleaded before your friend. But she ignored you, because noone cares about you enough. But when I am in control, I will make you great again. The people will cheer like they did after you defeated the Noxian troops. You know I am right._

 _'SHUT UP! It´s my body and my soul!'_ Irelia pressed her hands against her ears in a futile act to silence the voice within her. _  
_

 _You lost both at that day, you know that. You just refuse to accept it. Seeking help where you can´t find it. First to that stupid mountain and now to this "ascendent". How many more of these disapointments do you need to see that your end is inevitable? All people you know have failed you, passed you along or left you alone. And thats what you are, alone.  
_

 _'SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!'_ She felt the control slowly fade away. She tried to scream out, but no sound came off her lips. The feeling of her body not obeying her was terrible. The times before, she could only watch as she lost control and slaughtered person after person. It was like being frozen but at the same time fully alive. She always pretended to be strong, to be able to resist the demon inside of her. But that was a lie, she wasn´t strong at all. Her frequent lose of control was evidence enough. The world arround her was beginning to spin, her senses becoming numb. This was gonna be it, she would lose another fight over her body. _'How many more battles are there gonna be, before I won´t turn back normal again?'_

"IRELIA! IRELIA! Can you hear me?" Irelia was torn out of this stasis when her body was violently jolted back and forth. Before her knelt Nasus, the jackal ascendent, his hands placed on both of her shoulders. Irelia felt really tiny compared to him, as he was still over one and a half meters tall, despite his position. His eyes glowed with some unknown magic, his halberd laying in the sand beside him. Irelia didn´t know what he was doing but for the first time in months there was complete silence in her head. It felt amazing, words couldn´t even decribe the feeling that Irelia relished in.

"The reinforcements are here. Where are Quinn and your other friend?" His voice sounded so calm and it comforted Irelia to no end.

"Sejuani...she went to pick up the captain...I don´t know her name. Quinn followed her after...she was scared that they would die." Irelia could hear her own voice. It was little more than a whisper. "Please...help them..."

"It´s alright, Azir´s soldiers will soon help them. Lets us hope he is fast enough. There are still a lot of Noxian ravaging through this camp. We should get you somewhere save." The ascendant placed a hand on her forehead. Suddenly Irelia felt tired and exhausted, like she had traveled and fought for days without rest. Her problems seemed so insignificant all of a sudden and her eyes grew heavy. She tried to resist but that didn´t last longer than a few seconds.

* * *

Sejuani didn´t fear death. Afterall everybody had to die at some point. That didn´t mean she liked the idea of dying. Dying meant not being strong enough to live anymore and that went against the core of Sejuani´s principles. But at the same time she didn´t deserve to live if she didn´t possess the strength for it. She could hardly blame her enemies for defeating her. In a sense Olaf embodied the pinacle of her principles, always searching for a better opponent to fight and eventually die against. But in defeating them he proved to still earn his right to live and fight. Ironically he didn´t die fighting but smashed by tons of snow and ice.

Sejuani was covered in blood, both her own and her enemies. She really had to give it to the Noxians, they were a tough bunch. The "second wave" as Sivir had called it consisted of soldiers who looked not that different from the Shuriman ones. That was not really a surprise as the Noxian army drafted anyone as long as they were strong enough. The Freljordian and the Shuriman stood back to back, surrounded by enemies to all sides. Arround a dozen dead corpses lay arround them, they had been too greedy for a cordinated attack.

"Don´t want to be the killjoy, but this is as far as it gets...at least for me." Sivir murmured exhausted. Sejuani felt the weight of Sivir´s body press against her own. This had been a stupid idea from the idea. She went to save a person she didn`t even know nor care about. Best of all she didn´t even bring her own weapons, seriously what level of decision making was that? 'Another great idea from one of the former Queens of the Freljord.' She knew that Sivir wasn´t able to carry on anymore. It wasn´t gonna be long before Sejuani would share her fate. The odds were just stacked against her too much.

Their foes closed in for another attack. Sejuani managed to deflect two blades and even get a hit in on one of the attackers. He stumbled to the ground, his gaze filled with disbelief and pain. The others backed off again to refill the gap in their line. They were just about to go in for another assault when the sand below them started shifting. It swirled upwards and started to shape itself into something solid. At first it looked just like a ball of sand in the air, but it quickly changed into what seemed to be a somewhat human body. Legs and limbs continued to add to it until a ful blown body stood between Sejuani and her adversaries. It had all happened in a bunch of seconds and it was hard for Sejuani to comprehend. Additionally it wasn´t the only one. More and more of these humanoids rose from the sands, all in golden shiny armor with spears in their hands.

"What is this!?" Sejuani was baffeled by the sudden emergence of these 'objects'. Were they friends or foes, or something else entirely?

"It´s Azir" Sivir yelled. "We need to make a run for it now!" Sejuani grabbed the shuriman captain and pulled her towards the safety of the enchampement.

As if on command the sand-sodiers suddenly began to stab in the direction of the Noxian troops. They tried to fight back, but no matter how they tried, they could not harm their enemies. Sejuani had heard stories about the emperor and his powers. But she had not expected this. At first their path had been blocked by multiple Noxians, but as they continued to walk they backed off more and more, pushed back by the sand-soldiers. Their numbers were still growing rapidly and by now it must have been over one hundred warriors. They couldn´t move that fast as Sivir was severly injured and Sejuani assisted her, but after a few minutes they reached the pallisades of the camp.

Sivir had been hit hard, a slash covered all of her right leg and she bled from multiple smaller wounds in her abdomen and arms. Sejuani had avoided most blows but still suffered a few bruises and injuries. Not long after they had entered the camp a Shuriman soldiers ran towards them. He still seemed to be unwounded and relatively unexhausted.

"Captain, I´m glad your alive." He shouted. "We already thought we lost you!"

"That´s not because of you!" Sivir snapped back visibly beaten. "It was a fucking stranger who saved me, not my own men. What the hell were you doing while the rest fought and died out there?" This outbreak was already enough for her as she coughed up blood and almost broke down. She really was in a horrible condition.

"This is not the time." Sejuani tried to calm the Captain down. "We can discuss this later. You," She pointed to the soldier. "get her to a healer. I need to tend to my own injuries."

"Yes, of course." The soldier stammered.

He got to Sejuanis side and carried Sivir on one shoulder. The Freljordian made her way back to the fireplace of the camp. The ground was still covered with bodies but the survivors started to get help for the injured. It truly wasn´t a pleasent image, with bodies and limbs covering the ground and the blood spilling into the sand of the desert. The heat of the climate accelerated the decompositing, so the first corpses already excreted the smell of the dead. Sejuani had to admit that this had been one of the pro of the cold climte of the Freljord, even hours after battles most bodies were still fully intact, which made it easier to endure the burials.

Sejuani didn´t have to walk far when she saw Quinn running towards her, still a sword in her hands. Her face was lightly bruised and displayed fear and uncertainty. When she saw the Freljordian she stepped up the pace. Sejuani was surprise to see her here. She had instructed both of them to stay in the camp and wait for her return. Despite this it somehow made her happy that Quinn seemed to care about her. She still didn´t expect what happened next. When Quinn reached her she instantly locked her in a hug. It must have looked hillarious as the Freljordian was at least half a head higher than the Demacian.

This gesture led the Freljordian to the conclusion that something must´ve happened, Quinn was much more likely to act upon her feelings than Sejuani or Irelia. Did the Ionian snap again? Only now Sejuani noticed that she had left them both alone when Irelia had been surrounded by Noxians. Of course it was impossible for her to stay calm and just shrug it off. Quinn not being on Irelias side to stop her meant the situation had spiraled out of control. She grabbed Quinn by the shoulders and looked straight into her eyes.

"Quinn what happened? Is something wrong with Irelia? The she go crazy again?" The Demacians eyes displayed confusion and dispair.

"No, no. I mean...maybe...I don´t know. She was...strange when I left to find you." She was struggling to find the right words and her voice sounded weak.

"What do you mean, you don´t know? Why did try to find me then?" Sejuani couldn´t make sense of the situation at hand. Why was Quinn here? Why had she left Irelia when she was clearly needing help?

"What?!" There was a short silence after Quinn´s question. Her tone had changed somehow. It was not really hostile but rather reproachful."You just run off, with no help what so ever!" Her voice got louder and louder. "And you expect us to just stay calm about this. You were alone against dozens if not hundreds of soldiers! I really don´t care if you treasure your live or not, but its unfair of you to asume we think the same!"

Sejuani wanted to answer but she just couldn´t. She really had not thought things through this time. Both Irelia and Quinn were her friends and companions now. It had been so arrogant of her to worry for both of them, but at the same time not caring about her own life. It had been a long time since she known people who didn´t just view her as the leader but also as their friend. She was unfamiliar with a situation like that and so she couldn´t give Quinn an answer.

"It hurts you know! To see someone leave you and you can´t do anything! It don´t want to experience that again!" Sejuani noticed that the Demacians eyes got watery, she had clearly underestimated Quinn. While she liked the Demacian quite a bit, maybe even more than she should´ve, she never expected her to be that emotional.

"I´m Sorry you know. I just didn´t think that...I´m sorry."

There was an akward silence setting between them which made Sejuani feel uncomfortable. It was her fault the situation had played out like this. But she really coulnd´t think of a fitting answer.

"Come now" She broke the quietness. "Let´s go back to Irelia." Sejuani broke the weak embrace of Quinn and marched towards the camps square. Question formed up in her head. 'Did she really care that much about me? What about Irelia? Would she do the same for her?' But she brushed them aside as stupid. Quinn was someone who cared about people she knew, there was nothing more to it. She didn´t like Sejuani more or Irelia less. Throughout their journey Sejuani had witnessed multiple times how easy it was for Quinn to gain the trust of people and how thoughtful she was towards most of the people she knew.

* * *

When both women arrived at the camps fireplace they saw the jackal ascendant, in his hands, like a child, lay Irelia. It seemed that she was asleept and as soon as he spotted Sejuani and Quinn he approached them with firm steps. Arround him the soldiers were already cleaning up most of aftermath of the battle. Strangly enough Sejuani couldn´t make out any of the "golden" soldiers of azir. She really was intruiged what they really were. Did they possess an own will? Or were they just liveless vessels, made for combat by the emperor. She really wanted to ask Nasus these questions, but he spoke up before anyone of the had a chance to.

"You come late for your companion." His voice was commanding, giving both women no chance to object. "Even though I need to thank you deeply for the rescue of Sivir." It seemed the soldiers had already brought these news to him. "But you can not leave Irelia alone as long as she has this curse upon herself. I have halted the progress temporarly but this will not last. Your friend has one to two months left at max. And while she is a strong woman I doubt she will last that long."

"How can we help her?" Sejuani asked in a serious voice. "She had pinned all her hope on you and your healing magic."

"While my healing magic can prevent her from getting consumed by the madness I cannot cure her. This curse is made with magic I´m not familiar with. She would have to live the rest of her life here, just to be able to survive. But I do know someone who can get rid of this curse. Travel to the old city of Bilgewater, to the prophet of the elder god. The prophet knows of powers different from most magic users. There she will find help."

"Are you sure? She had already thought to found help when she asked the oracles on Mount Targon." Sejuani wanted a reassurance that they could really heal Irelia, else the trip was not really worth it.

The Ascendant´s eyes lit up slithly. "Are you doubting my knowledge? My powers might be limited at the moment by my knowledge is as vast as the sea you have traveled to get here." Sejuani just noded in response, she just trusted him on that one.

"I will talk to the emperor to give you rations and your own belongings. That´s the least we can do to thank you for your help in this fight. You shouldn´t stay too long here, for your friends sake."


	14. Chapter 14

**Welcome back!**

 **Here is another chapter of this story. This one is a bit different as not much action is happening but I found it pretty difficult to write it regardless. There is a lot going on 'inside' the characters and I hope I manage to picture it well enough. All three of these characters are rather old so not all of their thoughts and beliefs are that evident. I know the Irelia rework is coming up and I don´t know if I´ll incorporate it in the story or not, but we´ll see when that happens.  
**

 **As always feedback and comments are apreaciated!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

The sun burnt down mercilessly as Sejuani and Quinn prepared or their departure of the Shuriman camp. Shorly after the ascendant had informed them about their next destination, both of the women had reunited with their respective companion. Bristle was suspicious of the soldiers and almost gored one of them to death after they had freed him from his restrains. Luckly Sejuani managed to calm the beast down fast enough so nobody got hurt. She was relieved to see him still healthy and alive. It had been the frist time for years that both of them had been seperated by force. The boar was equally happy to meet the Freljordian again. To Sejuani Bristle was the one 'friend' that she could always count on.

She was just about finished with putting the rest of her own stuff together when a young shuriman man approached her. He wore only light armor and it seemed that he was just a recruit. In his hands however rested a beautiful weapon.

"Are you the northern warrior that saved our captain Sivir?" He asked, uncertainty in his voice.

"I fought my way out of the battle together with her, if thats what you mean." Sejuani just answered. She knew Sivir would be dead without her but she still carried a lot of respect for her to be able to hold on that long.

"Y-Yes, we... I mean, we are very grateful for your help. Sivir is the Chief of our mecenary group. Many of us wouldn´t know what to do without her."

"It´s really not that great of a deed. Just be sure to help her out next time instead." Sejuani felt a little uncomfortable in this conversation. She always felt akward when people praised her for what she had done, so she just wanted to be done with it.

"Please accept a token of our gratitude!" He held out the weapon Sejuani had noticed before. It was a short sword with a beatiful hilt. Gems were worked into it and the blade looked polished and sturdy. It was certainly a work of exceptional craftsmanship. "It´s one of our best blades our group has to offer. We hope you are pleased with it."

"No, it´s alright. You don´t need to thank me that much." Sejuani never asked for praise or a reward.

"No, we must insist that you take it. It´s the least we can do to thank you for what you have done." He was really persistent and Sejuani was not in the mood to argue with him. She grabed the weapon by the hilt.

"Alright I accept it." She reluctanly said.

"I wish you save travels and thank you once again. You´ve really done something great today." He did a deep bow, turned arround and slowly walked away. Her eyes followed him for a while before she returned to her own tasks. Most of her stuff was still in good condition, only some of her furs had been severly damaged when the shurimans had raided their camp.

There were other things that troubled the Freljordian. This day had shown just how fragile Irelia´s condition was and frankly Sejuani didn´t know what she would have done if not for Nasus. They needed to hurry now more than ever, Bilgewater was about a month of travel if they were lucky. Nasus had given Irelia one month at max so they had not even one moment to spare. He also advised one of them to always to stay near the Ionian and never leave her by herself. Sejuani took it upon herself to be the one to do this but Quinn objected and they decided to share this 'duty'. Sejuani still felt responsible for the Ionian, she had fought alongside Sejuani without asking any question or caring where she came from. Irelia herself was still aslept and Nasus told them she would not wake up before the next day. Even so they could not afford to spend the night in the Shuriman camp. Initially Sejuani wanted to explore a bit of the camp and look how Sivir was doing. She wasn´t really liking the her, but respected her as a warrior. But the situation made it necessary to change her plans. Nasus even prepared one of the Shuriman vessels to bring them to Piltover, one of their stops on their journey to Bilgewater. He explained that Azir had willed it to help them after Sejuani had saved Sivir from death, but they did not meet the Emperor of the Sand Empire in person.

About three hours later the Freljordian stood at the railing of the ship that brought them to the City of Progress, as Piltover was called. The water was crystal clear and the city of Bel´Zhun was already getting smaller by the minutes. Black smoke still emerged from it and Sejuani reckoned that by next day the siege was gonna be over. Bristle had been extremely dissatisfied to be on a boot so soon again. But this time he didn´t make as much of a fuss as last time. Quinn was currently staying by the Ionians side so Sejuani had some time for herself, to order her thoughts. She still could not make sense of what happened after she had saved Sivir. Was it really as simple as to say: "Quinn´s just a nice person, she cares about everybody."? She was not really sure. When they were still in Demacia, Sejuani had seen that Quinn still harboured resent towards the Ionian for slaughtering the villagers. Did she just push these feelings aside or was there more to it? Had she left Irelia on purpose or was Quinn really that worried about her? Sejuani hated that she didn´t know the answers to these questions. A sign escaped her mouth, she just wasn´t cut out for relationships.

What she knew however was her own feelings. Of course she had noticed the excitement when Quinn had hugged her. Sejuani was not a romantic person by any means, but somehow she wanted to experience something like that again. On the other hand, even if she accepted her own feelings, she didn´t know if Quinn even slightly returned those. Besides, her experiences had shown just how weak feelings made somebody. It was one thing to care about the people you were traveling with, but having a deeper relationship was something else. The Freljordian was prepared should something happen to either Quinn or Irelia, she had lost countless people who fought and followed her before after all. They were dead by now but Sejuani felt nothing but respect for them, there was no sadness involved. All of them had known the consequences of chosing to follow her and be part of the Winter´s Claw. The only thing she really regreted was not being the leader they had deserved. That being said, she would try to help Irelia to find a cure, but not hesitate a moment to kill her if they failed. As for Quinn, Sejuani did not know what to make of the situation, she didn´t even know how long she would choose to tag along. She was just some freelancer from Demacia after all. The only thing she knew was, that letting herself get carried away was only gonna cause problems for herself.

The sun slowly slid over the horizon and made place for a full moon and a sky full of stars. Their light was reflected on the water and it seemed the ocean itself was glowing with light. It reminded her of the night right before the calamity, the sky had been so clear that night and the air was full of anxiety and expectations. She knew that she had to return someday, even if only to pay respect for her soldiers, but she also knew that she wanted see some other places as well. Somehow the journey had sparked her curiosity. What was there to see in this world?

She took a few steps back and turned arround. The Captain, Sejuani had already forgotten his name, was standing behind the helmsman a spyglass in his hands. He was pretty young for his postition and carried two small swords at his sides. It was about time she headed for the cabins, she had promised Quinn to watch over Irelia during the night. Well she had just made that decision by herself, not that it mattered. She also hoped to get some answers out of Quinn about what happened today. Both had been so busy preparing for their journey, so there had been no time for a proper conversation. The air inside the ship was stuffy and the sound of waves punding on the hull echoed through the rooms. As the ship was rather small and the crew was only the three women and four Shurimans, there wasn´t really much place for rooms or cargo. Sejuani, Quinn and Irelia had gotten one seperated part of the ship, which was only a couple of square-meters, but it was enough for all of them. Bristle was kept in the back with the cargo and a substantial amount of hay and fruits. The rest of the ship was the Captains cabin, the armory, a small kitchen and the cabins for the rest of the crew.

Sejuani could hear two of the sailsmen in the kitchen, they were probably drinking. She made a short detour to cargo room to look if Bristle was alright. He was munching away at some hay and looked pretty satisfied, considering he hated being on ships. She kept him company for a couple of minutes before she went to Quinn and Irelia. She stoped before the shanky looking door and took a deep breath. Why was she so nervous now? This wasn´t like her at all. Without letting any of her thoughts futher unsettle her, she opened the door.

"Hey, how is Irelia holding up?" She tried to sound as normal as possible.

Quinn looked up a bit surprised. "Oh, hello. She seems fine to me. I didn´t expect you so soon, is it dark already?"

"Yep, almost half an hour already." The Freljordian just answered. "You can go to sleep if you want to, I´ll keep watch on her."

"I need some fresh air. I´m gonna head out for a while." Quinn was quickly standing up and heading past the Freljordian to the door.

"Wait, I really want to talk to you about what happened today. You didn´t tell me exactly what was happening between you and Irelia."

"Well, I don´t want to. See you later." Without another word she was already out the door. Sejuani was baffled. 'What the fuck was that?' She stormed out the door behind the Demacian.

"WAIT! Are you kiding me?!" She yelled in Quinn´s direction. The Demacian stopped in her tracks and turned arround, visibly annoyed. 'Have I done something wrong?'

"That´s what I should be asking you. I don´t know you lived up there in the North but it´s just not normal for someone to try and kill themselves!" Sejuani could very well feel the emotions that Quinn had put into her voice.

"What are you talking about?!"

"You still don´t get it? You go after a shuriman Captain who you don´t know shit about and who is fighting a losing battle without concern for your own life?" That´s what she was going on about?

"You´re still going on about that?" Hadn´t she already apologised for that?

"Of course! You can´t expect me to go like: 'Oh, you made it out alive and you totally won´t do something like that again! Well that´s fine!' " Quinn clenched her fists just starring at Sejuani in anger. Sejuani was surprised to see her that enraged about that. But still why was she obsessing over that?

"You can´t command me arround! I make my own decisions! Look why are you making a fuss about this, all went well didn´t it?"

"Seriously, you really have no clue about relations between people. I don´t command you to do it neither do I doubt your decisions. But I ask you to consider your friends feelings for a moment. Did you ever have friends in the Freljord? And I mean friends not subordinates." What kind of Question was that?

"What?" Sejuani asked mildly annoyed. A smirk formed on Quinns face and she put her hands on her hips.

"Just as I thought." This conversation was really wearing Sejuani out, didn´t Quinn have anything better to do than scold her about friendship. Besides there was not benefit from having a friendship to another person. Eventually everyone betrays you or uses you for their own benefit. Bristle had always been the only real friend she had.

"I didn´t need friends in the Freljord and certainly not now, because I´m strong. My warriors didn´t follow me because I was their friend, no. They followed me because I was strong. And Irelia..." She hesitated for a second."...she will not overcome this curse because we are her 'friends'. She will only survive if she is strong enough. That´s the rule of survival: Be strong and earn your right to live, or see your life fall to ruin because you are too weak. Trust me you are tested countless times in your life. If you fail one time you lose everything, but if you win, you can gain anything." Sejuani was sure she was right. She had experienced these tests herself. She had lost one time, but she was not gonna lose again.

Quinn just shook her head in disbelief. "You don´t even know how wrong you are! There is more to-"

"SHUT UP! I will not argue with you about this!" Her voice echoed through the entire ship and Quinn had taken a step back because she was shocked by the sudden outburst of the Freljordian. Sejuani knew she had gone too far. The Demacian turned arround. "No, Quinn wait! I didn´t mean to..." But she was already running through the next door.

* * *

Quinn was pissed. She wanted to destroy something right now. It had been quite a long time since she had been enraged that much. As much as she liked Sejuani and her abilities as much hated she her attitude sometimes. It felt like she was arguing with a ten year old. Sejuani never admited the faults in her logic and blindly followed her own rules without thinking about them. It felt so infuriating to try to convince her otherwise. She had really feared for the Freljordians life when she just rushed off on her own. She had even risked Irelia going insane just to get to Sejuani. But the only thing she did was just say a simple 'sorry'. Quinn reckoned she wouldn´t even hesitate a second to do the same shit again. She noticed her eyes going watery but she did not allow herself to cry or even shed one tear.

Quinn walked up to the railing the ocean before her reaching seemlingly endless till the horizon. It offered a blurry reflection of the sky itself. She slammed one of her fists on the wood as hard as she could. Of course there was no effect except the pain that flowed through her hand immediatly. But Quinn didn´t really mind it, she felt so conflicted in what to do. On the one hand Sejuani was not the enemy the people in the capital had made her out to be, on the other hand it was such a pain to deal with the Freljordian from time to time. The Freljordian had basically admitted that she did not see Quinn nor Irelia as friends and that somehow hurt Quinn.

She remembered back in her time as a rookie in the military she had had lots of arguments with her superiors too. She had been way more reckles during that time and often acted purely on instinct without planning ahead. But she had always tried to understand the other side of the coin. Sejuani didn´t even try to do that, she just believed her own logic to be right.

There was also the issue with Irelia. Quinn felt terrible for what she did to her. The one time Irelia had demanded something from her she had just left her on her own. Maybe it was even her fault that she had so little time left to find the cure she so desperatly needed. Quinn didn´t know how to confront the Ionian about this or how to apologize. Her own feelings had gotten the better of her once more. But dispite Sejuani being still alive Quinn didn´t feel happy at all. She had just had an argument with one of her friends and forsaken the other when she needed her. Today had been a shitty day, not to metion she failed to get Talon when she had the chance to.

Quinn gazed up into the sky. Endless and enormous it loomed over the scenery, always posing more questions than there could be answers. The three of them would reach Piltover next and Quinn knew she had to write a report back to the captial soon. Demacia and Piltover had complicated but good relations although the captial often critized the exploitation of Zhaun to get to resources and new technology. Zhaun was basically the slums of the city of Progress and people were mercilessly used as working tools or test subjects there. The smog of the chemtech industry flooded most of Zhaun and the streets were not a save place during the night. Only the refined and usefull inventions made it to the upper city parts, where the air was fresh and the streets clean. Quinn knew there was a demacian embassy in Piltover and such it would be quite easy to get a message back to the captial via some carrier pigeons. She just hoped the higher ups would refrain from issuing a kill-command. She already made it quite clear the Sejuani was not a threat to Demacia at the moment but she did not know much about the politics going on so anything could happen.

As her eyes wandered through the night sky she thought back to the moment when she had just instinctly hugged Sejuani after her return from the battle. She had felt so embarassed about that so she did not bring it up before her. But it had felt so good. She remembered the scent of dirt and northern furs, but also the warmth of the northern warrior and the strong but steady beat of her heart. Sejuani had been overwhelmed by her action and she had not reacted to it at first. If Sejuani had asked her on the spot why she´d done that, Quinn wouldn´t have known how to answer her. But Quinn knew that she had wished this moment could carry on forever. She didn´t know how to continue with her feelings though. Just let them be and tell Sejuani the truth? Quinn shook her head at this thought. The Freljordian would probably laugh at her, Quinn wasn´t even sure Sejuani had ever harboured strong feelings for anyone after the incident with her father. But her previous solution was obviously not working out, she knew that she truly liked the former Warlord. These feelings were different like any she had before. She wanted to spend time with the Freljordian, be at her side at any time. Quinn let out a loud sigh.

'Why is the world so cruel sometimes?'

* * *

Sejuani knew she just fucked up. She had fucked up big time. But wasn´t she the one that was right? Or was she? Sejuani sat by Irelia´s side on a small wodden chair. It had been about half and hour since Quinn had stormed off. The Freljordian could not bring herself to follow the Demacian. She had already done enough damage for today, so she had decided to talk to Quinn properly in the next morning. This time without any yells and screams and run-offs. After the abrupt end of their conversation Sejuani knew she had spewed out a lot of nonsense. Of course Quinn was upset. Sejuani had practically yelled in her face that she didn´t need nor want friends. This was true to an extend but she had said the wrong things. She trusted both Quinn and Irelia and appreaciated their company. But she was afraid of too close relationships.

Sejuani had tricked herself into beliving that Quinn and Irelia were not her friends, which was a lie of course. They had been friends since they departed from Demacia to Noxus. She had lied to herself that both of them were nothing more than travel companions. But the concern she had shown for Quinn earlier or now for Irelia were proof enough. They weren´t just travel companions, they were probably the frist friends she had in a long time. Both of them did not seem to care what her own story was and accepted her how she was.

And what had Sejuani done? Thrown herself into battle without any help, leaving Quinn alone with a weak Irelia. Of course it was difficult for the Demacian to stay calm when one of her friends was going crazy and the other on was charging into battle alone head first. Sejuani had always believed that friends made one weak and only exploited each other for profit. But nothing of the sort was happening here. Irelia was strong, Sejuani had seen that when they met the first time. She was plagued by this horrible curse, but always tried to fight it. Quinn was also strong, she lived in the wild for many years and survived without problems. She herself had been strong in the past, she had proven that countless times. Though she was not so sure at the moment. All she had done the past months was running from her problems.

All of them were reasonably strong and had nothing to gain from the other. Quinn and Sejuani supported Irelia in her quest to find a cure but did so out of their free will.

'Has my logic been wrong all this time?'

She had survived so long following her simple rules but she was struggling right now. But if her logic had been wrong all this time what had she done her all her life? She had killed countless times in the name of the things she had believed in. Had all these death been unnecessary?

'No! I have done the right things during that time!'

But that meant she was doing things wrong at the moment. But Sejuani didn´t feel as tough she was. What was right and what was wrong? At one point Sejuani had no idea anymore. Suddenly the candle that had lighted up the room burnt out. The Freljordian was engulfed in darkness and somehow felt helpless. She was lost in an endless sea of questions and Sejuani just had not answers for them. Maybe if she´d talk to Quinn again tomorrow she would find at least some answers.


	15. Chapter 15

**And we´re back with another chapter!**

 **I just recently saw the reworked Irelia and she looks awesome. As said before I don´t know if´ll somehow incorporate it in the story, but if I do I´ll let you know in advance. What would you think about that?**

 **Well, that´s all for the moment! :D**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Quinn didn´t turn up anymore and Sejuani spent the night alone with Irelia. She thought about what she should tell the Demacian the next day but couldn´t really come up with a great plan. She decided to give the blade she had received just the day before to Quinn as some sort of an apology. She knew it was kind of cheap to try and convince her with a gift but she really couldnt think of any better idea. Of course that alone was not gonna cut it but what else could she do? It had been way too long since she tried to make up with someone. In her time as warchief everybody just followed her and what she said was practically the law.

'Why am I so fucking bad with people?!'

Nasus had urged them to not leave Irelia alone at any time, but Sejuani felt as though reconciling with Quinn was more important at the moment. Besides it would probably only take abuot 10 to 20 minutes and the chance was high that nothing would happen during this time. Irelia had sleept through the night without any incident and Sejuani just hoped it would last a bit longer.

Sejuani looked down on her own armor. She had never once changed it during their travels and the Freljordian was fine with it. It was already a couple of years old, but dispite this it showed only little signs of attrition. The magic within it was probably at fault for that. The fine blue arcane lines that were worked into the metal protected her from magical attacks and the cold of winter. She thought back when Quinn had told her she couldn´t walk arround full armored all the times. Sejuani was still not convinced by the Demacians arguments but she knew this time she was not heading into a fight, or at least hopefully not. As she did not have anything other to wear anyways she couldn´t really change into anythings else. But she decided to at least leave her helmet in the cabin. Maybe that way Quinn was gonna see that she was serious about apologising, although maybe she didn´t even notice.

The heavy piece of metal looked way bigger in her own hands than it felt on her head. She placed it on a small table right next to where Irelia rested. There was a faint glow where one of the horns had broken apart in the fight with Tryndamere. She still had not fixed it altough she still possessed the other part of it. That was mostly due to not having excess money and it was only a cosmetical feature anyway. She still keept the broken piece as it had saved her life from the blade of the barbarian. Sejuani wondered how things looked in the North right now. Had Ashe won and finally united the nation or did she also fall for the schemes of Lissandra? Part of her wanted to know but another one didn´t even want to think about it.

When she rose her hair fell over her shoulders. It had gotten substantially longer ever since she had left the North. Normally it wasn´t exceeding her shoulders. But it was at least 20 centimeters longer now. She had regularly cut it when she had been warchief but not since she left the Freljord. For a moment she considered to leave it like that but ultimately decided to cut it again. She just liked it better when it did not bother her or take too long to dry. It may have looked better for other people but what did it matter, if she looked good but felt uncomfortable because of it.

When she walked through the ships rooms she heard nothing, only the song of the waves and the groaning of the ship accompanied the sound of her leather boots hitting the floor. It was probably still early in the morning, so most of the crew was just aslept. The weapon im her hands felt heavy even though it was much lighter than her flail or her other sword. Her steps also got slower the closer she got the the door for the deck. Despite her wanting to apologise to Quinn for her conversation yesterday, it felt like she wanted to avoid what was next. What if she just got into another argument? Sejuani grunted. Was she really scared of a conversation right now? She took a deep breath before she opened the door to the ship´s deck.

Quinn standing the railing her back turned toward the Freljordian. Sejuani didn´t know if she had slept at all considering Quinn had spent the night outside. The sun was just about to rise over the horizon and Quinn´s azor blue clothes casted a faint shadow onto the wodden ground. The sky was darted with small clouds like little pieces of whool. Right beside her, on the railing, rested Valor, his face looking up to his master. The bird looked as majestic as ever. Sejuani didn´t know why but the scenery felt sad and beautiful at the same time and for a moment she could only watch in awe. It reminded her of a day as warchief.

It had been the day before she raided a village that opposed her. Sejuani and her men had prepared an ambush in night and when morning came and the sun slid over the horizon she gave the sign to charge and annihilate the village. But the moment before that, was like a break in time. The frozen air glistered in the frist rays of the sun. The tension in the air of all her warriors and the roofs of the clueless village slowly getting enlightened. The tension was just the same as she felt right now. Contrary to what she had thought earlier this was gonna be much like a fight, just not one that Sejuani was particularly good at.

As Sejuani approached the Demacian, Valor turned towards her. He kept staring for a couple of seconds before he let out a short screech. It didn´t sound hostile but Sejuani could not recognize any joy in it either. Quinn lilfted her head slightly but didn´t face towards her.

"Shouldn´t you be with Irelia right now? Or is she not worth the effort for you anymore? She is not use to you crazy after all." Her voice was sour but Sejuani tought she could also hear sadness.

"Please don´t say that." Sejuani didn´t want to start another fight, although Quinn´s comment was quite provocative.

"Nasus told us after all. 'Don´t leave her to herself, even when she sleeps.'"

"Quinn..."

"Why are you here? Haven´t you done enough damage already?" It was even worse than Sejuani had expected it to be. Quinn was full of bitterness right now.

"I know what I have done!" Sejuani´s voice got a bit louder. She didn´t need to be lectured by Quinn right now. She was fully aware of her actions and her own words. Getting reminded now only made it worse for her to do what she wanted to do.

"Then what do you want?" The question was blut and cold. It was odd to hear that kind of voice from Quinn and it somehow made Sejuani uncomfortable.

"I came to apologize." She paused a few moments before she lifted up the sword in her sweaty hands. "And to give you this." Quinn turned her head a few inches, just enough to eye the weapon Sejuani´s hands. She lifted an eyebrow when she noticed that the Freljordian was not waering her helmet today. Then her gaze fell upon the sword and lingered there a few seconds before she looked away again.

"You´re trying to buy me?" It was pretty clear that she was happy but this thought.

"Basically." She had had no better idea after all. "It´s a great weapon one of the soldiers of Sivir gave me as a token of his gratitude." Sejuani felt really stupid when she said that, as if it made it better to tell why she had the weapon in the frist place. Had this really been the best idea she could´ve come up with.

"Wow, did you really expect this to go well?" Now her voice had a certain trace of amusement. Was she making fun of Sejuani now?

"I´m really bad at this you know." Sejuani thought a moment on how to continue. "I said a lot of unnecessary things yesterday and I´m sorry for that." Quinn slowly turned arround completly, her body now facing Sejuani´s. She narrowed her eyes and folded her arms.

"Unnecessary?"

"Well...accually..."Sejuani stoped."...more like... I said a lot of things I didn´t mean."

"Like what?" 'Is this an interrogation right now? She´s really making me say all of it...'

"The thing that I do not need friends, and that I lashed out on you."

"And?" This was like torture for Sejuani, the Demacian basically had her on a leash and dragged her arround like a dog. Did she really deserve that kind of treatment?

"I´m sorry I just ran off and disregarded your concerns. It´s just that it´s all so new for me." Sejuani took a few steps towards Quinn. "It´s been so long since I had people that accually cared about me as the person Sejuani and not the warrior." She hasitated for a moment but decided to continue anyway. She might as well tell Quinn the full truth. "I´m afraid of getting too close to other people so like to keep them at a arms length. It never brought me any good to have close relationships and that´s how I lived since the death of my father." She took another breath. "I got closer to you two than I expected to get."

"You got closer than you expected? So you never intened to become our friends?" Sejuani felt that this could be the breaking point. It was like the moment before a strike in a duel. If she messed up now she would 'lose' it all, but at the same time it was her chance to make up with Quinn.

"Yes and No."

"What kind of answer is that?"

"I never wanted to become friends with you two. But that does not mean I do regret it now. In fact I am quite gratefull that I met you two now. I had nothing to live for after I left the Freljord. But now I´m happy to travel with both of you." Quinn still eyed her suspicously but seemed pleased with her answer so far. "So far I´ve avoided to make friends because feelings can make people weak and do stupid things. I don´t want to be weak." Quinn´s gaze softened a bit.

"You are not weak. You´re one of the strongest persons I know. But we´re not in the Freljord anymore and your not a warchief anymore. You don´t need to be strong alone all the time. I can´t speak for Irelia but I am happy to help if you are in need. I am sure Irelia thinks the same." A faint smile appeared on her face and Sejuani felt as though she had made it out of the worst.

"It´s not that easy Quinn."

"Why? Is it that hard to accept two people as friends?" The softness was gone once again and her voice sounded reproachful.

"I have seen countless people die in my life and most of them because of their feelings for others or being betrayed by them." The memories of her fathers death flashed before her. It had felt so terrible to lose everything without being able to do anything. She never wanted to experience this again.

"So you assume the same is gonna happen to us?"

"I don´t want that to happen!" Although she was practically shouting Sejuani had difficulty even speaking. She felt as if she was strangled by someone. Like her throat was being laced up with a rope.

"It´s not gonna happen! We would never betray you or leave you to yourself. I can promise you that much. But you need to trust us."

Sejuani followed up with silence. She didn´t know how to answer. She had no idea what to tell Quinn. She knew she had to change something, but something within her also tried to resist it. So she just did the only thing that came to her mind as an answer and an apology. She took another step forward and before Quinn could react she had hugged the Demacia tight. Quinn was taken aback and at first didn´t respond.

"Seju...I think...I mean..." Quinn could utter little more than some sutters as she couldn´t really comprehend what was happening right now.

"It´s okay. I don´t know how this is gonna play out in the end but im gonna try to trust you guys more." Sejuani just felt at ease in this moment. "I still have a lot of question which I don´t know the answers to, but we´ll find them together." She was happy right now. She had managed to reconcile with Quinn and all her problems seemed so far away in this moment. But that lasted only a moment as she noticed another pair of boots stomping on the wood of the ship.

"I don´t really want to disturb your little private cuddling session but where are we and what in the gods name are you doing right now?" The voice was none other than Irelias. Sejuani broke the embrace with Quinn in a heartbeat. Quinn and Sejuani exchanged bashful looks before looking at the Ionian. She was still in the clothes she had worn in bed and Sejuani assumed that she had just got up. Of course she was confused as to why they were on a ship sailing on the ocean. She had been unconscious the whole time and as such did not know what their plans were. Her eyes displayed that in more than one way, but Sejuani thought to also notice a slight trace of panic in them. Irelia knew her time was limited and she could not afford anymore detours before getting to a cure.

"We were just..." Sejuani began, but she didn´t know what to tell the Ionian. Irelia had missed the whole fight Quinn and Sejuani had had. It was no use to tell her now that they just made up.

"You were just what?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Well, it´s a bit complicated." Quinn added with a light laugh. It seemed that she also had no idea on how to explain the situation to the Ionian.

Irelia´s eyes darted between the Freljordian and the Demacian. Then her eyes lit up a bit. Whatever she was thinking right now, it certainly was not something good.

"So you guys are now..." There was a slient pause and Sejuani cut in before Irelia could finish her sentence.

"What ever you´re imagining right now, it´s probably wrong and I don´t even want to hear it." Her voice was resolut and Sejuani thought to see a bit of disappointment in Irelia´s face. Her shoulders sunk slightly and she let out a small sign.

"If you say so...So, where are we right now? And why?" She had instantly changed to a serious posture and voice again.

"Whats the last thing you can remember?" Sejuani asked.

"We fended off the Noxians and then..." She fell silent as she gave Quinn a long look. Quinn averted her eyes from the Ionian seemingly unwilling to share what was the matter. Something had definetly happened between them and Sejuani really wanted to know what it was. After all it was part of the reason that the Demacain had been angry at her in the first place. But she ultimately decided against it. She didn´t want to possibly start another argument now, when she just reconciled with Quinn. So she just noded.

"Right now we are on a ship to Piltover." The Freljordian stated.

"Piltover?" The confusion in that question was pretty apperant.

"Yes. It´s only a stopover on our way to Bilgewater. Nasus told us there is someone in Bilgewater who can definitely cure your curse." Piltover connected the two parts of runeterra with one another. It was the center of mercantile trade and city of the most forward technology. Bligewater was alos one of the bigger trade-cities but also harboured some of the most fearsome folk ever seen.

"How can he be sure?" The thone of the Ionian´s voice was filled with worry.

"He gave us his word Irelia." Sejuani tried to sooth her insecurity.

"I hope..." Irelia hesitated for a second. "I hope it´s enough."

"Don´t worry." Quinn walked up to the Ionian´s side and claped on her shoulder. "Me and Sejuani will keep you safe until we find a cure for you."

Irelia put on a faint smile, but Sejuani knew that it was only an act. Irelia was probably sick with worry right now, which was understandable given the circumstances. Sejuani didn´t know what played out in Irelia´s mind and she wasn´t even sure she wanted to know. She had had enough problems with her own thoughts, she didn´t need someone to but in and tell her otherwise.

They spent a few more minutes together before Irelia excused herself again. Quinn offered to stay by her side but the Ionian respectfully declined. She wanted to be alone for a while. Sejuani knew that they couldn´t leave her alone for too long but she did not want to command Irelia arround in her current state. The last thing she wanted right now was a another argument so she accepted her choice.

As such the rest of the day was pretty uneventful for Sejuani and she was kind of glad it was. She spent most of the time down with Bristle as Quinn was occupied with Valor. Her animal companion was sulking in the small cargo rooms when the Freljordian entered. He really hated the shaky enviroment of the ship and never grew tired to remind Sejuani of it. He let out another displeased grunt when Sejuani revealed to him that they would spent quite some time on ships in the next few weeks. She even felt a bit guilty to put her friend through that much but it was necessary.

* * *

Irelia knew both Sejuani and Quinn tried her best to sooth her worries but she just couldn´t. She had always tried to remain calm and reserved even after the curse was placed upon her. But what happened in the shuriman camp had feared her. She didn´t know how long she could just continue before her own self was lost.

What she had just seen on the other hand had even amused her a little bit. It had been evident to Irelia that at least Quinn harboured some feelings for Sejuani. It surprised her a bit considering their different philosophies of living. Sejuani was generally a good person but marked by what had happened to her in the past. She didn´t know exactly what it was and she did not want to pry either. It was Sejuani´s choice to tell her and if she did one day Irelia would gladly listen. She also knew that Sejuani had been somekind of warchief and claimant to the throne of Freljord. Irelia had been too absorbed in the war against Noxus and did not care much for what had happened outside her home country. But she was grateful towards the Northerner as she had spared her life even though she went crazy in some Demacian town. She could understand why Quinn would develop feelings for someone like that, even Irelia herself had considered her chances at some point. But right now was not the time for that, there were just more pressing things at hand.

What was surprising however was that Sejuani seemed to at least partially return the feelings of affection to the Demacian. As for Quinn, Irelia thought that she hid something. She didn´t know for sure of course, but some of her actions just didn´t line up. Sejuani either was absolutly clueless about this or just didn´t care. The Demacian was helpful by heart to almost everybody, but she also loved her country. That by itself was not a problem, Irelia would give her live to save her people after all. But something told Irelia there as more to it than just love for your nation. The Ionian was sure that even if she confronted Quinn about it she would just get a bunch of excuses and lies. Irelia also knew that Quinn had lost her brother when she had been younger. Sejuani had told her the full tale when they were on their way to the Noxian harbour. He had died in trying to protect Quinn from a wild beast. Irelia knew well enough how much it hurt when your family was taken from you by force. She was the only one left of her own family.

'Father. Mother. Zelos and all the others. Their death came without warning. None of them had a fair chance.'

 _And soon neither will you._

Irelia shook her head to chase off the voice inside her. She remembered back to the time when her thoughts had been her own and she could pray to her own gods without interference. When she had been one with the harmony of the land and lived a unburdened life. Memories of her homeland flashed before her eyes. The green and bright forests, the sandy beaches and the villages darting the land. The magic, that was everywhere and the many animals and Vastayans that inhabitated the land besides the humans. But all of them were overshadowed by the Invasion. Fields, shinning bright red in the flames, houses burnt down to the last and the endless sea of blood and bodies. They had just been too unprepared which led to thousands of casulties. Most of them were never buried, their names forgotten in the horrors of war. The peace that had followed was unstable and had cost a price way too high. She had to find a cure and get back to her home as fast as possible. She didn´t know what Quinn and Sejuani´s plans were for the future and even though she was glad to have met them she could not expect them to just go and follow Irelia´s agenda.


	16. Chapter 16

**We´re back with another Chapter!**

 **This one is a bit longer than usual and features serveral characters which have not appeared before. I really hope I manage to hit their personality well. Some of them are kind of tough to write, as they are pretty old in-game and had their lore changed multiple times.**

 **I also want to take time to thank you for your kind reviews :3**

 **Keep them coming! That´s all for now.  
**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

A soldier opened the door to the throne room. He was one of Ashe´s elite guard, the huscarls, that only protected the inner parts of her residence. He wore metal platening with the symbol of the Avarosan imprited to it. Their weaponry featured a one-handed axe and a round wooden shield. Only the best and most experience warriors were let in and Ashe knew everyone of them by name. His was Soren and he was one of the frist to have ever joined. Ashe didn´t care too much about armies or the military in particular, they were just means to unite the Freljord and she much rather avoided conflicts. There was one expection though.

"My Queen, the envoy from Demacia has arrived. Lady Crownguard together with her escort are here." Despite being one of the most experienced in the Huscarls his voice was twichy and he spoke a bit too loud. The reason was, that not often high officals from other kingdoms and countries came to Ashe´s court. Accordingly most people didn´t know how to act. Ashe had always been a queen of the people and tried to connect with her countrymen as much as possible.

"Let them in." Ashe commaned. She rested on her small throne, which was really barely more than a beautiful wooden chair. The Frost Archer just didn´t induge in luxury, as she was so invested to provide enough food for her citizens. Soldier noded in approval and disapeared again. But not for long, as both wings of the door opened a few moments later giving sight to the visitors.

Lady Luxanna Crownguard was the sister of Garen Crownguard, the protector of the next King of Demacia Jarvan IV. Lightshield. The Crownguard familiy traditionally served as protectors of the royal family and had a high reputation among other nobilty. Garen was an exceptional warrior and had proven his skill and his loyalty to his country countless times. The soldiers in any demacian battalion strived to be like him and admired him. Much less was known about his sister Luxanna, a blonde young lady. She mostly served as a diplomat that visited other countries but rumors had it she also fought for Demacia with her very own magic. Of course these rumors just seemd to good to be true. A royal woman fighting in the common army and with no less than magic which was frowned upon in Demacian? Many people just dismissed these tales as lies.

Ashe looked over her new guest as she drew closer. The stories were not wrong, Lux was a beautiful women with bright eyes and her hair seemed to glow with light. What did not line up with this image was the clothes she was wearing. A metal breast plate together with sin guards and a light armor underneath. Lady Crownguard was told to be a lady of class and she dressed like a soldier. In her arms rested a wand, which purpose was unknown to Ashe but she guessed it was just a self-defense weapon. Following her were several soldiers from Demacia, all fully armored and marching in unison. Demacia didn´t hide their love for and pride for their military which left a sour taste in Ashe´s mouth. It was considered obligatory, albeit voluntary, to join the militay for a certain amount of time after reaching adulthood. The Frost Archer couldn´t say she was fond of this, for her military actions were to be avoided and only used as a last resort.

"Lady Crownguard, I´m happy to see that you have savely reached my court. I hope the journey wasn´t too stressful, the North can be quite a harsh place." Ashe greeted with a smile on her face. But in reality she was not happy at all. Demacians were a though bunch to talk to and Ashe had been quite disappointed whe she heard that Luxanna was gonna be her visitor and not Quinn Featherstorm. The ranger had been pretty easy to talk to and had understood most of the concerns Ashe harboured against possible agreements.

This was why Lux has come after all, to acknowledge Ashe as the sole Queen of the Freljord and accept it as a sovereign nation. The opportunity was too good to pass up for Ashe. Sejuani was defeated and gone missing and Lissandra had, suprisingly, retreated with her army way up to the north. Ashe reckoned she hid in the acient ruins of the Frostguard which were hundreds if not thousands of years old. The weather would hindered her from changing her position until the next spring which was roughly half a year from now. No one was there to prevent her from uniting the land. But she needed support from outside too. Noxus was not an option as the Empire lay claims to huge parts of the Freljord and Ashe could not tolerate this. Mt. Targon did not have a real government as it consisted of smaller tribes and the cult of the Solari who only worked together against outsiders intruding into their territory. That left Demacia as the only 'Ally'. Of course Ashe had to make some consessions and it had not been easy to agree to the terms a Demacian messenger had brought them beforehand. Most of their conditions involved ruleship over certain areas as well as renouncing Freljordian claims on Demacian land. But Ashe also had her own reasons as to why she chose Demacia.

"Ashe, ruler over the Freljordian lands and soon to be Queen, it´s a pleasure to be in your care." Lux answered. She walked up to the Frost Archers 'throne'. There was a certain spring in her step but she also let Ashe feel that she wasn´t queen in Lux´s eyes just yet.

"The pleasure is mine, Lady Crownguard."

"You flatter me, but please let us leave the pleasantries behind and focus on the task at hand. I trust you have received our conditions earlier." Her face showed a friendly smile but her voice was sharp.

"That we have and we can agree with most of your terms. However we would like to renegotiate about some of them." Ashe knew that they could not fullfil all of the requirements but she wanted the Demacian aproval nontheless. Additionally she wanted to add a personal thing to their contract.

"The cession of the 'Bufferzone' as well as the defensive pact are not negotiable." Lux replied in a stern voice.

"Now, now, lets not rush Lady Crownguard. We will dicuss this in my chambers, not here." Ashe had not expected the Demacian to be this quick to get to the subject. But it also showed her what Lux wished to gain of this treaty.

"Yes, we can do that." The bright smile returned to her face. "Guards, I will leave with Lady Ashe now. Be prepared to leave and stay alert."

"I don´t think you have anything to fear here." Did Lux distrust her that much that she commanded her guards to be on edge? Maybe this was gonna be much harder to pull off than Ashe had thought it was gonna be.

"Oh please, don´t missunderstand Lady Ashe, but it´s the duty and our pride as Demacians to be prepared at all times. I do not doubt the safety of your residence nor do I distrust the capability of your soldiers." Ashe wasn´t sure if Lux was telling the truth or just trying to sweet-talk her. But Ashe decided to just go along and noded.

The two women left the throne room and entered the quarter of Ashe´s personal chambers. Even though the people she ruled refered to her as Queen, her rooms did not overflow with luxury. The room Ashe chose was one where she normally planed the movement of her troops and coordinated the distribution of food in her lands. Despite being bloody cold outside this rooms was kept relatively warm, because it featured a fireplace. Ashe was used to the cold but she couldn´t say the same about the Demacian. They sat on a big wooden table near the source of the heat.

"So, what is it you want to 'renegotiate'?" Lux asked curious. "As I´ve said before certain parts of this treaty are vital to our interests."

"Yes, I do respect that. But you also have to understand the situation on our end. Lissandra may have retreated for now but she is not defeated yet. We can not give you the support you want as long as the threat of her returning is present." The treaty featured a military alliance with Demacia for five years as well as an indefinite non-aggression-pact. Ashe did not want the Freljord to conquer other states so she welcomed the non-agression-pact, but as for the military alliance she wanted to avoid it if it was possible. Her people had already suffered enough and the current political situation would likely pull Freljord in an unwanted war against Noxus. "Until then I would like the military alliance to be left out of this treaty."

"Unfortunately, we can not agree to this. If Freljord does become it´s own nation it changes the balance of power drastically. Securing Demacias strong postition in the North is the only way to keep Noxus at bay. This should be in the interest of the Freljordian people as well."

"While Noxus is truly a threat to our nation, we can´t let our people unguarded should Lissandra attack."

"As is metioned by our messagener we will assist you in your fight against the Ice-Witch should she show her face again. We believe this is insurance enough for you to be able to assist us against our common enemy, Noxus.

"So you will not back down from this point at any cost?" Ashe grited her teeth, she did not want her people to fight anymore, they deserved peace. Yet there was not gonna be peace if Demacia rejected their proposal. She could try to form a Freljord without their approval but the chance that another war was gonna break out was high if she decided to do so.

"No, this is not negotiable. Is this your only problem?" Seems like Ashe didn´t have a choice, she had to accept.

"We agree that you assume control over the bufferzone and will not claim any Demacian land." Not that Ashe was interested in this land anyway. It was barely 40 kilometer wide and featured nothing but snow and a few trees. "We also accept the non-agression pact and the establishment of embassies in each others capitals." Ashe continued.

"We are very pleased that you accept. One of my soldiers will bring the scroll at once, you only need to sign it and Freljord is finally gonna be a free and sovereign nation." Lux presented Ashe her brightest smile, but the Frost Archer was barely satisfied. _'Free and sovereign my Ass!'_ Freljord was forced into a military alliance and Ashe was sure that the drums of war would not remain silent for long. Even so this was her only chance. But there was still one thing.

"Not yet!" Ashe commanded, she had tried to sound friendly for the whole conversation, but this time her voice came over as extremly hostile. Lux flinched at her command and looked at her with scared eyes. "There is something I want to add to our contract."

"And..." Lux cleared her throat. "What might that be?"

"Sejuani" Ashe growled."Sejuani, I want her. My agents followed her trace deep into Demacia where it vanished. I am fairly certain that you know of that." She wanted her rival, dead or alive. Though preferably the later, she wanted revenge. Not only for Tryndamere but for all the people that had to suffer because of her.

Lux gave her a innocent look."Why would you think such-"

"Don´t lie to me! Lady Featherstorm left after the avalanche to try and find her and to report to you." Ashe smirked. "I am curious, what did she tell you?"

The facade of Lady Crownguard broke after that. "It is true, she found the leader of the winters claw and is curently traking her. Our last reports show that they were on their way to Shurima."

"Running away, eh? That´s not like her. But everybody has its fears and when I get her I want to make sure to make her fear me." Ashe paused for a moment. She had not expected Sejuani to run away. She had never, not even once, retreated from a fight. But now she was in Shurima? That was on a whole other continent. Even if she had fled there, what did she want there? "Tell her to bring Sejuani to me, dead or alive. I want this to be added to our treaty or else I´m not gonna accept." She wanted revenge and the satisfation of having triumphed over her rival. Normally Ashe was a perosn of mercy but as long as Sejuani was arround Ashe would never have peace of mind.

A victorious smile appeared on Luxannas face. "I am sure we can arange that."

* * *

Quinn peted Valor on his head. He had just caught a small fish out of the ocean. Quinn had never heard that eagles were even capable of doing that but she had to admit that she was a bit proud of her companion. But the eagle didn´t even care, he was too busy reaping the reward for his efforts. Quinn looked up into the sky. Big bulky clowds blocked the view of the sky and it was much colder than just a few days ago. Sejuani was inside with Irelia as they had been a lot recently. She didn´t know why they even spent so much time together but Sejuani always insisted that she would take care of her. Irelia tried to deter them from watching over her "like an ill child" as the Ionian had called it. But both the Demacia and the Freljordian made it pretty clear to her that she was not in a position to allow that.

It had been four days since Sejuani had made up with Quinn and she still was pretty happy that it turned out this way. Not only had Sejuani accepted her as a friend but Quinn also noticed how she tried to change. She had recognized her own faults and for that Quinn was grateful. Of course the icing on the cake had been the moment when the Northener had hugged her. Her world had felt complete in that moment. She had been so ecstatic that she almost confessed her feelings for Sejuani. Luckily Irelia came at the exact right moment to prevent that from happening. She had made up her mind after that day, she would try to get into a serious realtionship with the Freljordian. But Sejuani viewed her as a friend now and if Quinn rushed things now she could easily lose everything she managed to get. She mostly tried to act as normal as possible but somehow it was a lot harder than she thought to act normal, just how had she done it up until now?

Deep in thought she turned to Valor who was still tearing apart his price. "Why is this so hard for me Valor?" She asked in a somewhat sad thone. The eagle only briefly looked at her and let out a short screech. "You don´t know either, huh?" The bird returned to his meal, unimpressed by his masters questions.

"What is it that Valor doesn´t know?" The familiar voice of Irelia appeared behind her. Quinn was shocked by the sudden entrances the ionian always managed to do.

 _'Is she some kind of Ninja or what? How does she do it every single time?'_

"Ahh, nothing special just about some of the fish." Quinn balantly lied. The last thing she needed was Irelia knowing. She had already assumed something strange when she interupted their personal moment.

Irelia eyed her suspiciously. "Mhh, which one?"

"Well you know..." Quinn struggled to find a real answer quickly enough. She franticly tried to find one, but nothing really came to mind. "The dolphins."

 _'Oh my god what a fucking stupid answer!'_

"Dolphins are not fish though." Irelia flattly replied.

"Ehmm, well" Why couldn´t she just shut up? Who cared about fucking dolphins at the moment anyways! "That´s what I asked accually. Haha!" The fake laugh sounded really dumb in Quinn´s opinion and seriously, who didn´t know that dolphins were mammals?

"Oh really?"

"Yes, thanks for telling me. Valor and me were really stuck there." Quinn put on a fake smile and chuckled weirdly. This conversation was totally going in the wrong direction. Irelia wasn´t so dumb that she would just believe a lie like that, but Quinn also didn´t want to tell her the truth.

"Well, your welcome."

 _'She totally isn´t buying it!'_ Quinn had to change the subject somehow.

"By the way, where is Seju?"

 _'Wow, really good question. Talk about the thing you were trying to hide from her! 100 points for Quinn Featherstorm!'_

"Down with Bristle because he hates ships. Since 'Seju is busy I figured I´m gonna find you." Irelia put extra emphasis on Sejuani´s name. "After all one of you two has to watch over me at all times." Quinn meant to hear a trace of sarcasm in her voice.

"You know why we have to do this. It´s not like we want to steal your privacy." Quinn replied.

"I know. It´s just for my own safety and I am grateful to no end." She gave the Demacian a tormented look."But this curse, it gnaws at me."

"Yes, I know. But we will help you cure it for good."

"I hope you are right. If not, you can visit my grave soon enough. That is if you even bother to make one. Monsters deserve no funeral." Quinn was shocked by her answer. It sounded like Irelia had already given up.

"Don´t say that! I´m sure we´re gonna make it!" Quinn just tried to cheer the Ionian up just a little. Of course she couldn´t know wether they managed to heal her or not but she didn´t want Irelia to get depressed either.

"Are you? To be honest-" Irelia was cut short by the helmsman.

"Land Ahoy! Land Ahoy! Piltover´s in sight!" Both women turned towards the nose of the ship and stood in awe.

The City of Piltover was one of the largest cities in all of Runeterra and labled as the most progressive city as well. The view before them could hardly be compared to Bel´Zhun or other Cities they had visited. It didn´t seen as though the city was built on land, more like the land was the city. Buildings taller than both of them ever thought were possible fromed a city that was beyond their wildest dreams. irelia had seen wonderous things in Ionia, floating land, wild animals such as dragons or paradies birds and many more. But this impressed even her.

As they drew closer they noticed other incoming ships as well. An endless stream of trade vessels and luxury cruise liners all having the same goal. The harbour was bigger than most cities in Demacia alone and even though the strait was barely two miles wide Quinn couldn´t see what lay on the other side. But there was also a stain to that beautiful image. Below the city next to what seemed to be the trade-district were the slums of Zhaun. Green smoke emitted different buildings with chimneys reaching up far into the sky. Quinn had heard stories about what played out in this part of Piltover and was glad that they wouldn´t take even one step in there.

"It´s quite an astonishing view, isn´t it?" Quinn let out while being somewhat absent.

"You really think so?" Quinn turned arround. A few meters from Quinn and Irelia stood Sejuaniy as always in full armor but not with her helmet. Quinn had noticed that the Freljordian took it off frequently as of late. It made her somehow seem more human and she wasn´t that intimidating. "I have to admit it´s quite a sight." She paused for a moment. "It looks like a perfect machine. But, every machine has it´s dirty engine." She pointed towards the green smokes and run down buildings of Zhaun. "Many people have to pay the price for the wealth of this city."

Sejuani was right. The stainless image of the city above was paid by the suffering and sacrifices of the people in the slums below. Still Quinn was surprised to hear that from Sejuani. She had said she only knew little of the world outside the Freljord but used technicals words nontheless.

"Never thought you were that interested in the City of Progress." Quinn commented.

"Ohh, I´m not." Sejuani replied. "But I figured I´d ask the Captain of the ship a bit about the city before I receive another cultural shock." There was a moment of silence before she continued. "The 'City of Progress'?" She almost spat out these words. "Don´t make me laugh. It´s a City build on the bones of the poor. They don´t even get a chance. It´s not much different from the Freljord or Noxus. The strong dominate the weak, but compared to the Freljord it´s even more brutal. Your fate is determined not by how strong you are, but where you were born und how little you regard human life."

"Wow you really make it sound evil." Quinn replied. "Do you hate this city already?"

"Don´t misunderstand. The strong should always lead, in that regard the city seems neigh perfection. But the fact that your path is determined by where you were born breaks the system. It´s no different from a feudal monarchy. The thing I appreaciate up in the north is, that it doesn´t matter where you were born, as long as you are strong enough you survive. While it´s not impossible it´s a lot harder here."

Quinn viewed the Freljordian sceptical. Was she serious? But Quinn wasn´t able to out up a reply as the Captain walked up to them.

"We´re almost there. Get your things and be ready to leave. I reckon we´ll have like 30 minutes before they want us out of the harbour again. Pilties don´t like it when non trade-ships take up space in their harbour. Ships to Bilgewater mostly leave in the evening when the harbour gets a bit more quiet."

The three women noded and went down stairs. They didn´t need to gather much as they had not that much necessities to begin with. The most difficult part would be, to get Bristle off the ship fast enough. Not to mention it was a boar in one of the most busy trade cities in runeterra. Quinn wasn´t sure such a big animal was even allowed on the streets. But at the same time Sejuani would kill anyone who would try to seperate her from her companion. The Demacian just hoped to get to the other side of the harbour quickly and find a ship to Bilgewater. The less time they spent in Piltover the less trouble they had to expect.

The ship docked into a small pier and Quinn and Irelia got of quickly. Valor had placed himself in Quinn´s shoulder and she told him not to leave for a while. The city was big and the thick some was probably lethal so she didn´t want her friend to just fly off. Sejuani took a bit longer than Quinn liked. But soon she managed to drag the boar from the ship onto the land. He was visibly happy to stand on sturdy ground again but the beast instantly attracted suspicious views from the dock workers.

The harbour itself was bustling with activity. Every minute a new ship docked to unload his cargo or left to find a new destination. The building looked vastly different than any Quinn had seen before. The building were not made of wood and stone like most in Runeterra but rather metal and another material that Quinn did not know. It was like they entered another world or another time and Quinn needed a moment to process all of that.

* * *

They were just about finished and the ship was ready to take off when two women approached them. Judging from their appearance they were complete opposites from one another. One of them was about as tall as Sejuani herself and had pink hair, a colour that Sejuani had never seen on someone´s head before. She wore somekind of light metal armor and shoulder pads. The most irritating thing however were the giant gauntlets on her hands. They were three times bigger than a normal hand and were made purely out of metal. Steam emitted from them and it looked like it was powered by somekind of techology. It might´ve been magic but Sejuani heard from the Captain that almost anything in Piltover was the product of technology. The women next to her however didn´t match that at all. She was a strange purple get-up with a skirt far too short for Sejuani´s taste. Along with that she wore long leather boots and a really stupid looking hat. The thing in her hands interested Sejuani on the other hand, it seemed to be some kind of weapon with a lot of optics stacked onto it. Sejuani had no idea how it was suposed to work but it looked intruiging. Both of them closed in on the newcomers and eyed them suspicously. The smaller one of them walked up to Sejuani.

"Excuse me, but what is this...'thing' you´re trying to import to our City. Some of the dock workers reported to us that it might be dangerous." She said with an determinant voice. Sejuani had to admit that she had a really strange accent.

"This 'thing' here is my companion, and I am not importing it into your city. We are meerly stoping by on our way to our real destination." Sejuani replied. She didn´t want to get in trouble right now but it also annoyed her when pleople showed no respect for others. The way that woman had just talked to indicated she did not value their presence at all.

"My apologies. But whatever it is, I do not think it should walk on our streets. Who are you people anyways? You don´t look like you´re from arround here." There was a slight change in her voice and even though Sejuani was annoyed by her response it didn´t seem arrogant or hostile.

Before Sejuani could answer Quinn pushed herself in front of the Freljordian. "Like my friend just said we just stop by here. We don´t even want to spent the night here if possible." Quinn used her sweetest smile possible to presuade the women before them. "I am Quinn from Demacia." She pointed behind her at Sejuani. "This is Sejuani from the Freljord." She turned to Irelia next to her. "And this is-"

"Irelia Lito." Irelia finished the sentence for her. "I am from Ionia."

"Damn, Freljord, Demacia and Ionia. Got quite the collection there buddies." The pick haired woman chimed in. She had a smug smile on her face. "And now tell me that doesn´t sound suspicous at all, right? You better tell us what you really want before I beat it out of you."

"Vi we have talked this over at least a hundred times. So please just be quiet." The other woman lectured her partner.

"Oh cmon, Cupcake. They are practically begging for it."

 _'Cupcake!? The People in Piltover sure are weird.'_

"They are not begging for anything, and don´t call me that." She turned back to Quinn. "And you, we´ll bring you to the other side of the harbour to ensure you cause no trouble."

Sejuani wanted to retort something but a single look of Quinn was enough to deter her form that. She didn´t want to be watched upon like some petty criminal. Of course she didn´t want to stay in Piltover any longer than necessary either but being dragged arround by this woman just didn´t feel right.

"Yeah, sure. We take you up on that offer." Quinn said in a sweet tone.

'Damn Quinn, you are way too nice most of the time!'

"That was not an offer. You follow the Sheriffs orders. If she says 'sit' you sit and if she says you follow us to the other side you have no other choice than to do so." This pink haired woman really got on Sejuani´s nerves. Acting like she was the greatest shit in town. The Freljordian bet that she had to compensate something with these huge gauntlets.

"You can just ignore my partner here. She lacks a lot of...manners." The 'Sheriff' responded. "I am Caitlyn Heathrow, the leader of the police force in Piltover. Now if you would follow us." Without any more words she walked ahead in a fast pace.

Sejuani gave Bristle a sign and he started to move. He still was a bit thrown off by the situation. Of course he didn´t know exactly what the women had talked about but he knew that it was something about him. Vi, as Caitlyn had called her earlier, trailed just behind Sejuani. The sight of a Ionian, a Demacian with her eagle and a Freljordian together with her boar cause most of the people to pause in their routine. It just was something you rarely see. In fact that was probably something they had never seen before.

 _'I know Quinn wants me to stay cool and not cause any problems. But I swear, this fucking woman, she is just asking for trouble.'_

"So you´re from the Freljord, huh?" Vi suddenly asked.

 _'There she goes again.'_

"What of it?"

"So are you guys still running arround killing each other for no reason at all." Vi taunted.

 _'Shut up, will you?'_

Sejuani was so tempted to just turned arround and knock some sense into her. But instead she managed to stay calm and reserved. "No we don´t, we never have done it in the first place. But I guess you just don´t hear what really happens down here." Luckily this was enough to keep Vi from asking any further questions, Sejuani didn´t know how long she could´ve kept her cool.

It felt as though they walked an eternity. The fact that the enviroment didn´t change wasn´t really helping. Caitlyn led them away from the eastern harbour through some trade districts and residential areas until they reached the western harbour. But no matter where they were, the streets were always filled with people of different countries. Sejuani recognized at least a dozen different languages each with their own dialects. On the one hand it facinated her that so many people lifed together in one city on the other hand she was almost sacred by the amount of things it had to offer. Craftsman-shops for all kind of devices, at least ten different kinds of clothing shops and somekind of open bars where people drank their drinks in small chinaware cups. It all was much simpler up in the north and somehow that was reasuring. They arrived as the sun started to cross over the horizon and the sky changed into a beautiful red. Caitlyn turned towards the foreigners.

"So, where is your next destination?" She gave Quinn an expectant look. Seems like she wanted her to do the talking.

"Bilgewater."

Caitlyn raised an eyebrow.


	17. Chapter 17

**Hello! Yes, It´s been a long time. I´m sorry for taking that long for this chapter. The new semester hit me pretty hard and I´ve got much to do right now. I don´t know if I´ll be able to update the story that frequently anymore but I want to continue it nontheless.**

 **There is not so much happening this chapter but the next few to come should be very important for the main story. As for the Irelia rework it seems pretty solid and fun even though she was hotfixed pretty fast. I´ll propably incorporate it in the story in some way or another but I can´t follow the full lore anymore as I have already established some backstory to her.**

 **Anyways I hope you like this chapter! Feedback and suggestions are welcome as always!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Bilgewater?" Caitlyn asked, her voice somewhat suspicious. "Pardon my curiosity, but what could could possibily want there? It´s just a haven for pirates and other criminals."

Bilgewater was indeed a rough place with little to no unified governance. It was almost the exact oposite of Piltover which held law and order in high regard and tried to minimize it´s crime rate. In that sense it was understandable that Caitlyn was sceptical of their next destination.

"We got something to do there." Quinn tried to brush the question off. Telling Caitlyn that Irelia might go crazy at any second really wouldn´t help them in any way.

"Something pretty important." Irelia added in a stern voice. Considering they tired to basically save Irelia´s life it was indeed very important.

"Told you, cupcake." Vi stepped up. "These guys are no good." She got an annoyed look from Caitlyn but she didn´t answer immediatly.

"Don´t just assume things Vi. We don´t even know them, how can we judge them by just putting fractions of their story together." She turned back to Quinn. "Which leads me to the question, what is it that you three are really doing together?"

Quinn wanted to avoid a situation like this and she didn´t know hwat to tell the sheriff besides the truth which would propably lead to more problems. She wanted to get rid of the two lawkeepers as fast as possible. She had told them they wanted to leave as fast as possible but that was accually a bit of a lie. Quinn wanted to send another message to the captial from the demacian ambassy in Piltover and she didn´t need Caitly and Vi to but into that. She also had to get a reason for Sejuani and Irelia to not follow her so there was another problem. If worst came to worst she just had to send Valor with a letter and hope the people in the ambassy could make sense of it.

"Well, our target is Ionia," Quinn gestured towards Irelia. "because she wants to get back as fast as possible. At the same time me and Sejuani want to deliver something to Bilgewater so we take a little detour."

"At little detour?!" Vi demanded. "It´s almost in the other direction."

"We know, thats why we want to get on our way as soon as possible." A friendly smile appeared on Quinn´s face and she hoped she could just get rid of the two women.

"I take it you know of the rumors currently going arround?" Caitlyn inquired.

"What rumors?" Sejuani butted in.

"Noxus is preparing another Invasion of the Ionian continent." Irelia flinched at that comment. "Of course it could just be rumors," Caitlyn continued. "But the peace is already very fragile between them. So you should be careful if you venture into this region."

Sejuani gritted her teeth. "We´ll be sure to be." Quinn reckoned she wasn´t really happy with these news.

"Anyways" Caitlyn turned back towards the sea. "This ship will bring you to Bilgewater, safe and free of any troubles." She gestured towards a rather big vessel. It looked different from any ship Quinn had ever seen. It was almost twice the size of the shuriman ship and the wood looked much darker and more sturdy. Even though it had two big sails there was also a big chimney in the rear part of it. Pitch black clouds emerged from it and to the sides of the ship two big paddle wheels reached into the water. Quinn didn´t know how these would function but it seemed to assist the ship to gain more velocity. About a dozen workers were currently loading up the ship and make it ready for the journey. "This is ship that frequently oscillates between Piltover and Bilgewater. It transports goods from either city to the other and is one of the few legal vessels to do so. The relationship between our city and Bilgewater is always a bit complicated and frankly it´s a miracle that this trading agreement came to fruition. It will depart in about two hours, so you will have a bit of time. To ensure that you will not cause any problems you will board this ship and for the trouble you had to got through with us, we will cover the costs."

Quinn was impressed, she did not have the impression, that Caitlyn and Vi where friendly enough to go this far for them. It somehow felt a little too easy, there had to be more to it.

"I suspect there will be conditions though?" Quinn added.

"Not really," Caitlyn answered. "I just want any possible problems out of my city because I have enough work for another two months. So I just take the easy way out."

It kind of made sense but Quinn still wasn´t fully convinced. But if there were any problems they would present themselves in time. Right now Quinn just wanted to get rid of both lawkeepers, and if that included to agree to take this particular ship she was all for it.

"Cait, are you really considering to do this? For all we know they might be criminals or worse." Vi objected.

"I´m not considering it Vi, I´ve already decided. They did everything we asked them to do, didn´t they? So why are you still so suspicious?" Vi was not fully satisfied with that response but didn´t put up any reply.

"Well, not much else to say than thank you at this point. We thought it´d be a lot more work to find a suitable ship." Quinn responded.

"No thanks required. One of you has to come with us however." Sejuani perked up. "I need a sign of aproval from one of you to give you your papers."

"Papers?!" Sejuani was confused. "What are we supposed to do with those?"

Caitlyn looked at her with an irritated face. "You have to show them to the ships Captain obviously. I will him a note from the Piltover-Peacemaker office so he knows you are allowed to sail with him." Sejuani still didn´t get a thing. Why couldn´t she just tell the captain in person?

"Why do you not just talk to him?" Sejuani asked mildly annoyed. Quinn had to repress a laugh. The concept of bureaucracy was totally foreign to Sejuani. Which was understandable, she had led a Freljordian warband. Quinn had experienced it in the captial and was not a big fan of it. Bureaucracy made everything more complicated but also structured. But she knew it was necessary in big cites and centers of trade.

"It´s alright Sejuani. I´ll tell you when I return." The Demacian chuckled.

"What´s so funny, huh?" She grunted towards Quinn.

"Nothing, really." She turned back to the sheriff. "I´ll come with you."

"Fine, just follow us." Caitnly said, ignoring the situation at hand.

Quinn noded and the Sheriff strutted away from the steamy monster towards a different part of the city. Vi followed close by and still seemed upset about what happened. The stench of the harbour soon gave way to other smells in the air. They passed the entrace to the district of Zhaun and coom and chemtech smoke waved over from the factories and stores. Debris filled the street and most people visible only wore shabby clothes, and were covered in bruises or burns. The skin of some of the had taken on a ill-looking green colour and some of their bodyparts were either missing of replaced with metal.

"How can people live there?" The Demacian wondered. In the Demacia there were no real slums, the people who couldn´t afford to live in the captial, either because they didn´t work or couldn´t work, were just thrown out of the main city. As a result the area arround the capital, that were not used for farming or livestock, consisted of small towns surviving through the steady flow of people going in and out of the main city.

"People adapt, because humans are good at that." Vi answered bluntly. "When you are used to hostile enviroment, you don´t smell the chemtech, you ignore all the flith arround you. What matters more are people. People that you hang out with, people that you work with and people that you live with. For you Zhaun seems to be impossible to live in, but for a lot of people it´s a home." It sounded like Vi knew exactly what she was talking about. Quinn assumed that Vi had lived there for a certain amount of time. Her appearance did not fit with the rest of the piltoverian population. Most wore fancy looking dresses or costum-made suits, but Vi, she prefered a more practical aproach. The pink hair was another oddity compared to the normal folks. But Quinn decided it was best not to ask too many questions so she just kept her assumptions to herself.

The scenery changed yet again, but this time to a more bright and colourful scenery. They had arrived in the upper parts of the city where most people that resided in Piltover lived in. The streets were clean and the walls of buildings looked as good as new. There were not as many people as down in the harbour but it still was pretty crowded. The main difference was that there were almost no foreigners. The elite of the city consisted almost solely of Piltoverians and they Quinn had the impressing that they made sure that it stayed that way.

Caitlyn led them to a big brownish looking building, overlooking most other buildings in it´s vincinity. The huge writing over the doors read: "Piltover Bureau of Peacekeeping Affairs". Quinn was surprised as it didn´t look at all like the baracks she knew in the capital. The Police in Demacia was part of the military and as such shared the same headquaters. But that wasn´t true for Piltover. The building looked like any other ordinary building, save the height. There were no walls or fences just one man at the large double doors that led inside. He noded at Caitlyn as she approached the entrance.

"I´m gonna head in and take care of the necessary procedures. You and Vi can wait outside." The Sheriff explained and entered the building before any of the two could say something.

Quinn was now alone with the pink haired punk and she wasn´t sure how to react. Frankly she was a bit scared of her, but the same she somehow reminded her of Sejuani in some way. There was something both of them had but Quinn could not pinpoint what it was.

"How long have you two worked together?" She suddenly asked. She wasn´t even sure why she did that, maybe just to break the weird silence between them. In a way she was also meerly curious, Vi and Caitlyn seemed like two totally different people, what had happened that both of them worked together.

"Only for about eight months." Vi instantly answered. A small grin appeared on her face. "We don´t really fit together, do we?"

"Uhmm...that´s not accually what I wanted to say with that." The Demacian was stuttering a bit. Vi´s assumption had accually hit home pretty acurately. But the last thing she wanted was trouble with Vi.

"No, it´s quite alright." Vi just continued. "Caitlyn and I are different, and not only in appearance or manners." She lead back against the wall and her gaze went up into the sky. "Caitlyn is a person that I can never be. She wants to help people, and not for her personal gain. She knows if a person is good or bad in a few minutes and he does everything in her power for the people she cares about and would never even think about leaving someone to their fate." Vi signed. "I´m different. I have stolen things...hurt people...even killed them. I regret what I have done, but there is no changing it now." There was a moment of silence between the two women and Vi now looked directly at Quinn.

"I see it in your eyes, you´re also different than me. Different than both of your friends. You never have gazed too deep into the abyss." Quinn raised her eyebrows. What the hell was talking about?

"What?" Quinn was baffled. She had no clue whatsoever what Vi was talking about. Did she mean that Quinn had not endured any hardships compared to her firends? ' _What does she know about me?! Nothing.'_ Nor did she know anything about Sejuani or Irelia, just what was she babbling about?

"You´ll understand, in time." She simply replied.

Both of them just remained silent until Caitlyn came walking through the door, a piece of paper in her hands. She handed it two Quinn with a short "Here, for you." The Demacian eyed it intruiged, the quality of it was expectional compared to what Quinn was used to. The paper she used for her military reports had no real shape and much lower quality. It just showed how forward Piltover was in certain things. Caitlyn also handed her a quill with ink to put her sign under it. She quickly put it under the formal text right next to the one that said 'C. Heathrow'.

Caitlyn asked her if she wanted them to escort her back, but she respectfully declined. Quinn reckoned she did more out of politeness than goodwill anyways and she didn´t want to take up more time from the two women than necessary. The only thing she wanted to know from them before bidding them farewell was, where the Demacian ambassy was located. Both were surprised at first but told her it was just about 300 meters away. Quinn had little trouble finding it, as the building was pretty obvious to distinguish from the others. It was a bit smaller than most others but following in the demacian arcitecural style, it was mostly built out of large white stone blocks, only with small windows. Big banners of the Lightshield family decorated the space beside the door. The interior looked rather modest with just two counters, occupied by young and bored looking soldiers. Quinn took a steat at one of the small tables in the corners after she hald talked to one of the soldiers. Then she began to write the message she intended to send to the capital.

* * *

 _Dear Seneschal Zhao Xin, 9/XVII - VC_

 _I am sorry for not being able to contact you sooner but the cricumstances made it not possbile for me. I have traveled through the noxian territory and passed Bel´Zhun which was under shuriman siege. The threat of the newly risen Empire of the Sand can not be ignored and should it should be considered to take action in some kind or another._

 _Me and my target have reached Piltover now and will soon depart towards Bilgewater. If everything goes well we will reach it in about 20 days. In the current situation I don´t consider the target to be a threat to Demacia anymore. The chain of events have drastically changed her and I recommed to reconsider her status as an enemy of our country.  
_

 _If you have any further orders or news send them to the embassy in Bilgewater. But be noted that we will probably not stay there for too long._

 _Justice and Peace for Demacia_

 _High-Ranger Quinn Featherstorm_

* * *

Quinn put the feather aside and checked the letter once again. She wasn´t fond of military reports and letters to higher ups. In that regard she was a bit like Sejuani, she prefered to talk to people directly. But it was obviously impossible to contact the captial in any other way, so Quinn had no other choice. She also made it look as though Sejuani was not worth pursuing anymore. On one hand she was just objetively right, Sejuani had no interest to shake things up in Demacia or the Freljord, on the other hand it was also in Quinn´s personal interest. Although she told herself that she was not being selfish with this she knew that infact she was.

She walked up to one of the desks and handed one of the soldiers the letter and told him the destination. He was a bit suprised at first but did not ask any questions. Discretion was held in high regards in the demacian military and Quinn sent that letter directly to the high-command. After Quinn got a promise out of him, that he would ready up the message as fast as possbile she left the embassy and made her way back to the harbour. It would take the pigeon a few days to reach the captial but it would be fast enough for the to sent an answer to Bilgewater, though Quinn hoped that wouldn´t happen. She was happy enough with the situation right now.

When the Demacian returned to the big mechanized ship, Sejuani was already debating with another person, supposedly the captain. Irelia was just standing by, seemingly a bit out of it. The Freljordian made a bunch of gestures but the man accross from her just shock his head. He was almost one whole head taller than Sejuani and only wore a thin west and short trousers. His arms were covered in tatoos and a long cutlass hung at his belt, he looked more like a pirate than a merchant in Quinn´s opinion. But before anything else could happen, Valor made the presence of the Demacian noticeable by a loud screech. A bit annoyed Sejuani turned her head and caught sight of the ranger.

"Finally!" she sighed. "I´ve been trying to tell this idiot the whole damn time to wait for you. What the fuck took you so long?"

"Well, there were complications." Quinn evaded the question. "Nevermind that, I´ve got the papers so he should be satisfied."

The pirate took a glance at the Demacian. "That damn woman right there told me yer coming with us, together with that furball. She said, she doesn´t need to pay either. As if I´d believe that! Yer just trying to hornswaggle your way to Bilgewater, don´t ya?" His accent was unmistakeable and Quinn could see a few teeth missing in his mouth.

Quinn faked a smile and showed the man the newly aquired wriths of passage from Caitlyn. The man practically snatched them from the Demacians fingers. He scratched his beard for a few seconds as he seemed to read through the papers and slowly shock his head in disbelief. Quinn was surprised to see that he could accually read, most pirates were poor fisherman and never had nor could afford suitable eduaction. Maybe he was more than the first impression left on.

"Shiver me timbers! An order from the sheriff herself. Ain´t often that I get word from her myself." He looked up from the papers and right into the Demacians face. "I reckon your miss...ehm...Quinn?" She noded in response. "You can come aboard, but keep to yerself. Last thing I need is trouble with Pilties because of you." He handed them back to Quinn and turned towards the giant ship behind him. "Smith, Bill, show these landlubbers their cabins." He shot Bristle a short glance. "And make some space in the cargohold, we need to transport a boar."

The next 30 minutes consisted of trying to get Bristle onto the ship and into the cargo room. He was obviously displeased to be on a ship again. They had landed in Piltover just a few hours ago and he had no intention to again spent days without being able to really move. Even sweet words of Sejuani had little to no effect. When she had finally managed to convice her companion she was visibly exhausted. The cabin they were shown was very small and all three of the barely fit in at the same time, but as they only had a few things with them it was not as big of a problem.

Another hour later the ship was finally ready to leave. It had taken longer than everybody expected and the mood was a bit sour because of it. Sejuani had already headed to the cargo room to calm down Bristle. Quinn and Irelia stood at the back against the railing. Suddenly the noise from the ship, that had lingered ever so slightly in the background the whole time, grew louder until it echoed through the whole harbour and the paddle wheels slowly started moving, driving the ship out of the harbour. The sound of the engine inside grew more intense and so did the vessel. It was moving considerably faster than any other ship arround them as it did not depend on the wind to move forward. Big black smoke clouds puffed out of the chimney and filling the air with an unpleasent smell.

"I don´t like it." Irelia remarked bitterly.

"Hmm?" Quinn was not really sure what the Ionian meant. Was she refering to their company or what?

"The ship." Irelia continued. "In fact I don´t like this whole city. It looks nothing like in Ionia. The people and the nature are not co-existing with one another, more like fighting against each other. The same is true with this ship. It does not sail with the winds but rather fights it to reach it´s destination." He voice was filled with a bit of anger but overwhelmingly sadness.

"Well, that´s just the way Piltover has chosen to be. I´ve heard plenty of stories about the Ionian nature killing people." Quinn answered. She didn´t like Piltover that much either but was also facinated by the technology that they possessed. In the end it always was up to the people of the land to choose how to live. Was it better to live with nature or use technology, everybody had to find an answer for himself, there was no universal truth to learn about this.

"Yes the nature killed lots of people in Ionia because they fought against it." Irelia replied. She even smirked a bit which almost never happened before. "The Noxian´s had the pleasure to experience this first hand. Nature is no different from people. It has needs, wishes and memories like we do. Why should we have to right to take it away from them with expecting any repercusions?"

"That´s how it goes in Ionia. But this is Piltover." Quinn was a bit surprised. Irelia rarely made her own opinion public and mostly accepted the things as they came. But she seemed to be very stuburn about this particular topic.

"You are right. I don´t have the rights to force my ideals upon them. I apologise." Her voice sounded a bit defeated and somehow sad. Quinn guessed that Irelia was really missing her home and her curse just made it more difficult for her. Quinn was used to not having a real home. She could fell comfortable anywhere, she just got used to different enviroments as an elite-ranger. But Irelia lived for her home country, the rare times when she had talked about the different regions and traditions in Ionia her eyes had shone bright.

"You don´t need to apologise to me." The Demacian also felt a bit embarassed because Irelia always sounded so formal and hearing an apology from her somehow felt weird. But then she smiled. "Don´t worry, we will soon return to your homeland and then you can show us how beautiful it is."

"Yes, hopefully you are right." Both of them remained there in silence. Quinn didn´t know how long they just stood there looking at the waves in the water, the ever returning noise of the engine filling the air. She was pretty hopeful for the days ahead and she was sure that they would succeed in aiding Irelia with her curse. But somehow she felt a bit sad too. Finishing her buissness with Irelia meant that each of them may had their own plans. She told Irelia before both her and Sejuani would follow her back to Ionia, but in truth she had no idea if that was gonna happen. Sejuani maybe had her very own agenda and if the capital sent new order Quinn had no other option than to comply.

"Hey, there´s something I want to ask you." The Ionian disrupted the silence. They way she said it seemed very important and Quinn tensed up a bit.

"Sure, go ahead." Quinn tried to sound as casual as possible.

Irelia waited a few more seconds before speaking. "Accually...nevermind. Another time." Quinn was confused. What was this about? She didn´t want to force an answer though she she just noded.

"If you say so." She pushed herself back from the railing and turned arround. "I´m gonna check up on Sejuani, care to join me?" She asked while walking away. But there was no answer. Just the sound of a body hitting the floor violently.


	18. Chapter 18

**Oh boy has it been a long time. I welcome all readers back and all the new ones that have joined. I´ve been quite busy last few months and had this chapter laying around half finished for quite a long time. Riot even got around to update their lore with a map and all so some things of this story are obsolete canonwise. I still want to finish this story though I can´t say for how long this is gonna go on.**

 **I hope to be faster with a new chapter than like half a year and I am grateful for any readers that have endured through this dry period.**

 **Anyways I don´t want to let you wait any longer here is chapter 18, feel free to comment on what you like or dislike.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

When the Demacian turned arround to see where the strange sounding noise came from. She found Irelia on the floor. Quinn didn´t know what happened that made the Ionian fall but it most certainly was not the force of the tide. The sea was at relative ease and there was almost no wind although clouds started appearing on the horizon. Up until now they had been pretty lucky with the weather and never ran into a storm. Judging from Irelia´s own face she was caught off guard too, as she stared upon her feet in disbelieve. Her arms were trembling with fear.

"Irelia-" Quinn began.

"What is happening?! "She yelled. "Why won´t you move anymore." She hit her feet with one of her hands formed into a fist. "Why?!...Why?!" Her voice got more deperate. "I never told you to fucking stop!"

Quinn was shocked. Irelia had never had such an out burst before. Her normal reserved voice and her careful choice of words were all but gone.

 _'It must have something to do with this curse of hers. Or is it something different? What should I do? Call Sejuani? What can she even do? Are there tears swelling up in her eyes?!'_

Her thoughts raced but she just stood there in awe, unable to do anything to help her friend. She had no power over this curse or anything related to magic. Despite her doubts she still hurried to get Sejuani who was still busy in the cargohold. When Quinn told her about what had happened just moments before the Freljordian wasted no time and followed Quinn onto the deck. Irelia was still unable to move her feet but she had stopped trying to fight it. Her face was pale white her eyes looked dry of all hope. Sejuani couldn´t help her immediatly as she was no mage or healer after all, but she just lifted the Ionian up and carried her to their cabin. She planted her one of the small beds and sat on a stool beside her.

"Irelia, are you feeling okay?" she asked in a firm voice. She didn´t show it but Quinn knew that the Freljordian was probably as worried as Quinn herself was. Both of them had zero clue as to what was happening or what they could do to prevent it.

But the Ionian didn´t even seem to notice both her companions anymore. Her eyes just gazed into nothing, her arms trembling. "It´s all over now...I have failed.."

"Irelia?" Sejuani once again asked.

But there was no reaction at all from Irelia. She was absorbed in her own worries and fears. "I have failed...I have failed everybody...This is how it ends...I should´ve known...I just-"

Sejuani abrubtly stood up, knocking the small stool down to the ground. She grabbed the Ionian by her shoulders and tore her from her outherwordly state. "Irelia listen to me! You are not yet lost!"

The Will of the Blades turned whatever attention she could muster up to Sejuani. "But can´t you see...I can´t even-"

"You still draw breath don´t you? You still have our own thoughts don´t you? If you ask me, that is plenty to keep on fighting!" The determination in Sejuani´s voice was overwhelming and Quinn could see why she had been the leader of an army in the past. Despite her being pretty incompetent in dealing with other people personally she possessed a huge amount of charisma and authority. Additionally she was a very capable warrior and had had clear goals, honestly it was not that surprising that she rose as a leader. But this was also the reason for her lack of trust in other people and the difficulties she had in dealing with people personally. Altough Quinn had to admit that was indeed trying to change that, but of course this took time and effort. In the past Quinn had been way more reckless in fights and often decided to ignore commands by her superiors. She had been a good soldier but most of the lieutenants in the army prefered not to have her in their training groups. Quinn had no other choice but to change but only managed to do so in time and with great discipline. She was quite happy that she was mostly free in her decision-making today but it taken a lot of work to get that far. The same would be true for Sejuani but only time would tell if she was gonna be successful.

It seemed that Irelia was also a bit encouraged by this. She smiled weakly and scrached her head. "You´re probably right. I still live, but I just can´t deal with this anymore. It takes up so much of my strength."

"Just a little longer." Quinn compelled her. "We will arrive in Bilgewater soon and hopefully you will find help there." She smiled, but was not sure if it was gonna be that easy. She just hoped they wouldn´t get passed along like in Shurima.

"Yeah, lets hope so."

* * *

Sejuani took a deep breath. The smell of salt-water and dead fish filled her nostrils. They had arrived in Bilgewater, the largest of the cities of the Bilgewater Union.

The last two weeks had been anything but restorative. Irelia´s condition had kept getting worse and she had never left the cabin. The second half of their journey she wasn´t even fully awake most of the time. Sejuani had kept her company and Quinn was never far off either. When the Ionian had been awake she had told them about her life in her home continent. Irelia had had four siblings but all of them had died when Noxus had attacked. Her whole village had been slaughtered and she could do nothing but watch as she ran away. She joined the Ionian forces and fought at the Placidium. This is where the story Sejuani had already heard began. She and her comrades traped and the curse that was planted on all of them. But her story and what she cried out in her fever dreams didn´t line up correctly. She said it was about two years ago and after that she began her journey to mount targon. She had arrived there during a blood moon, yet the last blood moon had been five not two years ago. Sejuani did not know what was the truth, but could she really believe the mumbles of a fever dreamer? On the other hand Quinn also said that the great war between Noxus and Ionia had been during that time and since then there had only been small skirmishes. But should it be true, then Irelia had been much younger than Sejuani had expected her to be. The Freljordian had no idea how old Irelia really was, but she was pretty sure that she was both younger than herself and Quinn, meaning she had only been about 14 years or younger when her family was killed.

All three of them had just gotten off the giant steamer and stood at one of the many piers in Bilgewater. The sun had just passed its zenit and the air of the harbour was chilly. Though it was more accurate to say that Quinn and Sejuani were just taking their things off the ship while Irelia lay on the back of Bristle unconsicous. He had been miserable for the most of the journey and Sejuani just hoped to avoid another long journey by ship. The prospects for that happening were rather slim though as Sejuani had planned to venture to Ionia together with Irelia. Valor had planted himself right on Bristle´s head which iritated the boar even further.

 _'Of course Ionia just has to be a conglomeration of islands! Why can´t it just be like any normal country?!'_ But cursing it wouldn´t get her anywhere so she just had to persuate Bristle for another trip on a boat, though his patience already ran pretty thin.

Quinn returned with her small bag, a satisfied smile on her face. "I´m done with my stuff." She said in a cheery voice. Even though the last days had been pretty taxing on both of them she was happy that they had made it without Irelia going crazy.

"Yep, me too." The Freljordian answered. "Let´s get to it and find that damn healer or prophet or whatever." She didn´t want to waste any more time. Irelia had been aslept for the last two days and so Sejuani reckoned that they didn´t have much time left anymore.

"Yeah we should do that. I´ve heard form the captain that there is a small pub not far from the harbour. I´m sure there they´ll tell us where exactly we´ll find this prophet." Sejuani just noded.

They made their way through the crowd of the docks. It was compareably big to that of Piltover but much more caotic. The buildings also looked much different, not like the perfect and symmetric one in Piltover. Here every building was sort of unique, every single one did not look like the other. And while in Piltover every worker could be easily recognized as one in Bilgewater you could not judge the book by its cover. People from all nations and religions worked and lived here in different positions. Sejuani heard multiple people speak in the familiar dialect of the Freljord and somehow she felt a big nostalgic. It had been a few months now but she felt as though she had left her old life behind since years. The wars and conflicts of the norths just seemed so far away and insignificat. This city was much more in Sejuani´s taste. She had heard that in Bilgewater there were real authorities, the city was split into multiple factions with different goals and methods to achieve them. Everybody could make a living here, regardless of birth or origin. The only person who had held most of the power had been a person named Gangplank, though it was much more loosely and he had vanished recently.

The stench of death and alcohol was unbearable but Sejuani didn´t really notice it. She had adapted to much worse in her time as a warchief. But Quinn was clearly bothered by it. She was used to the fresh air of the nature. She also disliked alcolhol and had often expressed her displeasure when Sejuani had gotten drunk the night before. For the Freljordian it was an easy way to reduce the amount of nightmares that still occured from time to time. It still made her uncomfortable that she just left her men dead in the snow. She knew she wanted to return to the north, if only to mourn for them. But that was all in the future and Sejuani wanted to concentrate on the problem at hand.

After a few mintues a building came in sight that seemed to be the inn in question. It was a bit taller than the other houses surounding it and a small plaza was in front of it. It was quite crowded as people moved in and out of the doors. Big sign decorated the entrance with a rough pictogram of a mug. The noise was also picking up as they drew closer and wasted people could be seen to the side of the road. It was a sight that Sejuani knew too well from the own warriors. After successful raids the fesivities carried on through the whole night and in the following morning most of the soldiers were hungover or still drunk. Sejuani had demaned discipline by her men but she also knew that they needed stress relieve and alcohol was the easiest way to do that. Dispite the rather meager amount of ressources the Freljord had to offer in terms of food, alcohol was present everywhere. No matter what ingridient, Freljordians manged to make spirits someway or another.

Irelia groaned on the back of Bristle. It was filled with pain and torment. Somehow this sounded different than her usual fever dreams and Sejuani had a bad feeling. How much time did they have left? She turned to Quinn. "I don´t think we have anymore time to spare. We need to hurry the fuck up." Quinn just noded. Seems like she had noticed the change too. Both warriors hurried to the tavern and stoped before the enterance. Most peole just backed off from them since they had never seen a boar like Bristle.

"You take care of Bristle, Valor and our belongings. I´m gonna ask where we can find that damn prophet." Determination filled Sejuani´s voice. Quinn noded and the Freljordian walked into the tavern without another word.

It was a mess. Not that Sejuani had expected anything else but this was way worse than she had imagined. The room was filled with a crowd of people and some shanky music echoed through the tarvern overshadowed by the laughter and screams of the mass. Sejuani had never heard anything like it yet it seemed fitting for a place like this one. It was all such a chaos, so much things happening at once. Though guys playing cards while empying their mugs in one going, women seducing not so sober people to get into their pokets and in one corner two men were having an argument which seemed hardly peaceful. A few people who had too much had blacked out on the ground.

The barkeeper was a rather small women but packed with muscles. She had black hair that was tied back and a bunch of scars decorated her bare arms. She noticed Sejuani almost instantly as her armor made her stand out like no other. She turned her attention towards the Freljordian and scanned her up and down.

"From the Freljord, eh?" She opened the conversation as Sejuani reached the counter. She either knew a lot about the different nations or Sejuani´s appearance just gave it away too easily. Sejuani didn´t know which of the two it was. "A lot of yer folk is coming to us in these times. Guess cracking skulls is only fun for so long."

"Yee, the north is a harsh place. Though there are few places better than it."

"What brings yer here then, if its so good up there." She asked, her voice a bit mocking though Sejuani could tell that she just wanted to know what brought her here.

"A friend, actually. I need some information about the city for her sake." Sejuani answered truthfully. She felt as though the barkeeper was one of the more decent folk in the city and so she saw no reason to lie.

"A friend, eh? Go right at it then, I´ll help yer if I can." She placed her palms on the counter ready to listen to Sejuani´s request. It was kind of strange to have such a helpful person betweeen all that scum in this tavern. Two guys were just smashing their faces against each other just about three meters from them. But yet the woman in front of her was calm and had a smile on her face.

"We want to find the Prophet of the Elder God. Our friend-" Sejuani´s comment as interupted by a sharp inhale. The facial experssion of the barkeeper had changed in one instant. He face was frozen and her eyes spoke bad news. Sejuani hesitated a bit. "Wait, is there something wrong?"

"I don´t know who told you to search that woman." Sejuani lifted her eyebrows surprised, it was a woman they were searching. She had ust assumed the prophet to be male. "But you should know that its not a decision you make lightly. She is not just a prophet, she is a force of nature. There is no one who made it out of her 'test' unscathed. You should be well prepared if you wanna meet her."

Sejuani scratched her chin. Why were things always so difficult, couldn´t it just be easy for once? Just walk there, ask for help and then they´re done? But they didn´t have the luxury to change their plans now, they had to act fast and decicive or else Irelia would end up six feet under. "She is our last resort, we don´t have any other options left. We don´t have much time left either so we have to make our move now."

The person across from her took a deep look into her eyes, like searching if she really told the truth. After a few seconds she leaned back and let out a sigh. "Fine," She said in a defeated voice. "Don´t say I didn´t warn you though. You may be getting yourself into more trouble than you can handle." She took a short pause. "Even though you look like you can handle a lot of trouble yourself. The 'Prophet' lives on a small island not far from the city. She´s been the first truthbearer to have reached the city of Bilgewater and helped defended it from the death in times of the Harrowing. Those who choose to accept the test she offers often don´t return, and if they do, they are changed."

Sejuani gritted her teeth. The more she heard the less she was convinced they would really find help in this Prophet. But there was no choice, no other option they had. This person was their only spark of hope for a cure. She knew she needed to prepare for the worst. Should Irelia be lost and any cure would fail she had the duty to end her life. She had accepted to help her so it was also upon her to stop her should the demon take over.

I the next minutes the innkeeper, who introduced herself as Clarissa, told her in detail how to reach the island. Some hundred meters from the inn was a small pier where some small boats lay anchored. It would take them about 20 minutes to reach the prophets home. At the same time she offered the two women a room in her inn. Since she had helped Sejuani without any cost she accepted. She liked Clarissa, she seemed like a wamon that knew what she wanted and also had the skills to get it.

The Freljordian left the counter and stepped outside where the Demacian waited. It wasn´t hard to see that she was quite nervous as she eyed the ionian with inpatient eyes, restless and always jumping from Irelia to the entrance of the inn. So she was quite relieved when she noticed the Freljordian among the other people. She stepped towards her.

"And?...Could you get everything we need?" She said in a uncertain voice.

Sejuani tried to show a satisfied smile. "Yes, you can calm down a bit. She told me everything we need to know to find that prophet."

"Well then. We shouldn´t waste anymore time then."

"I´m gonna take Irelia to the Island with a small boat. The Innkeeper offered us a room, you can just throw our things in there and get Bristle into the small stable right there." Sejuani pointed behind the Demacian where a pretty run down barn stood right beside the lively Inn. Clarissa told her that it was mostly used for storage as most of the people in bilgewater didn´t posses a horse or any other animals. But she assured her that there was enough space for the boar.

Quinn looked at her in disbelief. "What do you mean? We just leave Bristle here with our stuff unwatched?! I´m sure-"

Sejuani just cut her off. "Stop with that. You´ll obviously need to stay here."

The Demacian was gesturing with her hands in wild motions. "No...No, you can´t just tell me to stay here while you do all the dangerous stuff. I you don´t need to-" But she couldn´t finish her sentence.

"Stop. I have decided what we will do." Her voice was resolute and it was clear that she would not allow any objection. She didn´t know why but she felt like she had to that alone. It was a sense of responsiblity that made her choose this. She had spared Irelia´s life back in the Demacian Hinterlands but that had also cause much pain and sorrow for the Ionian. She had endured all of it and Sejuani sincerly hoped it was gonna end today.

But Quinn wasn´t quite convinced. "Look, you told me you´ll rely on others more. I am your friend and we need to do this together! You can´t just expect me to-"

"I can and I will. And you will not defy my decision. This is not about relying on others, this is only about doing what I should do." Her tone had shifted drastically and Quinn backed off two steps suprised by the sudden change in the atmosphere. An terrible silence followed that didn´t feel good. But the Freljordian knew she did the right thing so she choose not to back down on her decision. She cleared her throat to this akward moment. "Come on, lets get moving."

Sejuani pulled the Ionian, that was still unconcious, from Bristle´s back and carried her over her shoulder. Quinn began getting their stuff to the Inn while Sejuani walked away. The Demacian was still not happy with the chain of events but she also knew it was futile to try and change Sejuani´s mind.

The small pier that Clarissa had described was not far and Sejuani reached it within five minutes. She knew it was different from the rest arround it the instant she arrived. A kind of soggy atmosphere filled the air and it felt a it harder to breath. A lonely man sat on a old chest only covered in rags of cloth that seemed to form some kind of cloak. He must have been about in his 40s but heavy scars covered the skin that the riddled cloak revealed. His hair hung down over his face making it harder to make out any distinct features. A fishing rod rested beside him, though Sejuani doubted he would ever catch something with that. In the water a small wodden boat rode upon the small waves with two paddles resting in it.

Even though Sejuani was used to physical exercise she was a bit exhausted. Irelia together with her armor was heavier than expected. The fact that she had the bag with Irelias equipment didn´t make the task any easier. She breathed heavily as she approached the man and so it was no suprise that he noticed her pretty fast even with his face looking onto the ground.

"Hmmm." The stranger lifted his face up about one inch. "I wonder,...what leads a warrior like you to me. You´re not from here, nor does it look like you´ll stay." His voice was hoarse but his words still cut through the air.

"I want you to take me to the Prophet of the Elder God." Sejuani spoke in a resolute tone. She didn´t want to this to become a longer conversation so she just cut straight to the point.

"Are you sure? Many who i ferry over dont return." He replied his voice curved up in a smugish fashion.

"I know what I am doing and I´ll be able to pay."

"Oh don´t worry. I am not the one you have to pay. The Prophet will collect the debt you owe me." He left a short intentional pause. "So, come on then. Lets get this over with." Sejuani just noded. He got up and pulled the boat closer to the dock. With a somewhat nonchalant movement of his arm he gestured to climb into the boat. The Freljordian postioned Irelia behind her and sat down on one of the planks. The stranger followed and took both of the boat oars ad began rowing towards the open water.

The only thing breaking the silence that persisted between them was the steady sound of the oars hitting the water and emerging from it again. The air began to fill with a light fog and the lights of the City behind her began to blurry. It didn´t take long until the three of them where too far away to see any of the buildings and the only thing left around them was the water of the ocean and the feeling of anxiety. What would await Sejuani on the isle, was it what she hoped or something else entirely?


End file.
